Sen. Amy Klobuchar plans to hold antitrust subcommittee hearings on App Store

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in General Discussion
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), who was recently installed as chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights, on Wednesday said she plans to investigate tech-related topics including app stores.

Klobuchar
Source: ABC News


Klobuchar, long an opponent of dominance in Big Tech, told CNN reporter Brian Fung that she plans to hold multiple standalone hearings on tech antitrust issues like app store policies and news publishing. Hearings on agriculture, cable, and transportation are also on the docket.

The senator has yet to ask company CEOs to testify, saying those hearings lean more toward theater than fact finding, Fung reports. She has not, however, ruled the possibility out, saying, "We're looking at everything."

Apple CEO Tim Cook last year testified in front of the U.S. House Antitrust Subcommittee following a probe into Big Tech. The iPhone maker was under the microscope for its App Store policies, specifically App Store fees, and allegations of "copy-acquire-kill" strategies.

As noted by Klobuchar, app stores -- both Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store -- will be a focus of the subcommittee in coming months.

Allegations of monopolistic practices gained traction last year when Epic Games blatantly flouted App Store policy when it updated its game Fortnite to include a method of direct in-app purchase payment. Apple pulled the title, triggering a well planned legal thrust that has morphed into a worldwide struggle over developer rights.

Along with congressional scrutiny, Apple faces pressure from individual states that seek to loosen the company's grip on its app marketplace by allowing third-party payments systems and, potentially, app stores on iOS.

Klobuchar is no stranger to the tech game and in February introduced the "Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Act of 2021," which seeks to reform antitrust laws by granting more punitive power to legislators. The bill also takes action against monopsonies, possibly paving the way for stricter App Store oversight.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 24
    9secondkox29secondkox2 Posts: 2,666member
    Oh great. Klobuchar. Often has her mind made up before ever getting the facts. Some seriously cringe stuff with her. 

    Please woman. Stay away from any matters that require depth and nuance. 
    williamlondonmike1watto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 24
    xbitxbit Posts: 390member
    No doubt Epic - via its lobby group - has given her a sizeable campaign donation.
    williamlondonDogpersonlkruppmike1watto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 24
    Misogyny aside, this is her job, and there is no question the government needs to look at these issues and take positions. The App Store bullshit is minor in the overall picture. Whatever oversight or regulation that gets enacted in that respect will not pose any serious issues for Apple. 

    No, social platforms like Facebook will be front and center here. Things like the Instagram acquisition and other kinds of anti-competitive practices need to be looked at. Not to mention privacy and security aspects. The idea we should all sit around with our thumbs up our asses while we let people like Mark Zuckerberg do whatever they like is not going to fly.
    lkruppsdw2001rob53dewmeronnprismaticstmayfastasleepwatto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 24
    "Hey look, Apple has a crap ton of money, there's no way they could have accumulated that much without engaging in some unfair practice!  And if we can't find one, we'll just something they are doing 'unfair' and blast them over that!"
    mike1watto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 24
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    “copy-aquire-kill”? Isn’t that what Microsoft called ‘embrace and extend’? And what happened to being ’sherlocked’? 


    edited March 2021 mike1watto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 24
    cloudguycloudguy Posts: 323member
    Misogyny aside
    Stuff like this is infuriating. Absolutely no references to her sex were made at all and nothing was said against her that hasn't been said against males tho take anti-Apple stances. As if Tim Sweeney of Epic Games or Google's Eric Schmidt gets positive treatment in these parts just because they are men or something.
    mike1
  • Reply 7 of 24
    sdw2001sdw2001 Posts: 18,015member
    Oh great. Klobuchar. Often has her mind made up before ever getting the facts. Some seriously cringe stuff with her. 

    Please woman. Stay away from any matters that require depth and nuance. 
    She's not the worst of them, but she is exceptionally annoying and not very bright.  
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 24
    cloudguy said:
    Misogyny aside
    Stuff like this is infuriating. Absolutely no references to her sex were made at all and nothing was said against her that hasn't been said against males tho take anti-Apple stances. As if Tim Sweeney of Epic Games or Google's Eric Schmidt gets positive treatment in these parts just because they are men or something.
    For the record, I was referring to this lovely statement in the first post above: “Please woman. Stay away from any matters that require depth and nuance.”

    You’re walking a fine line if you want to argue that’s not a misogynistic reference to her sex.
    edited March 2021 ronntmayfastasleepwatto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 24
    rob53rob53 Posts: 3,241member
    It's interesting Congress is looking into antitrust activities when some legal group needs to look into all the illegal activities of Congressional members. Talk about all the money being received by members of Congress, this is legal bribes and needs to be stopped. Congress needs to clean its house before going after others. 

    As for Apple making a lot of money, this has more to do with people wanting to buy Apple products and services than Apple being anti-competitive. Look at where Microsoft still is. It's difficult to treat a companies worth by its market valuation because the company doesn't own all those shares but Microsoft continues to bring in lots of money every year yet I haven't seen much press on their continued anticompetitive behavior. I agree with others who feel Facebook and Google's anti-privacy behavior is more important to investigate than Apple's App Store. 

    dewme
  • Reply 10 of 24
    cloudguy said:
    Misogyny aside
    Stuff like this is infuriating. Absolutely no references to her sex were made at all and nothing was said against her that hasn't been said against males tho take anti-Apple stances. As if Tim Sweeney of Epic Games or Google's Eric Schmidt gets positive treatment in these parts just because they are men or something.
    Listen, he is using it like "Please man (or dude or pal, these have male inferences) stay away from......." This type of, to be polite, "sensitivity" is our real problem in society now, you can't even reference a person using proper gender specific pronouns. Relax. Everyone.  She's annoying and some of us are annoyed that government is going after tech. We all have our opinions and many of us are frustrated or worried. I own a lot of AAPL.  We can be frustrated or angry at someone or something without gender (if that exists anymore) being used to derail the facts of what was said. I have never been offended by someone saying to me "Please man, be real". 
    avon b7watto_cobra
  • Reply 11 of 24
    cloudguycloudguy Posts: 323member
    cloudguy said:
    Misogyny aside
    Stuff like this is infuriating. Absolutely no references to her sex were made at all and nothing was said against her that hasn't been said against males tho take anti-Apple stances. As if Tim Sweeney of Epic Games or Google's Eric Schmidt gets positive treatment in these parts just because they are men or something.
    For the record, I was referring to this lovely statement in the first post above: “Please woman. Stay away from any matters that require depth and nuance.”

    You’re walking a fine line if you want to argue that’s not a misogynistic reference to her sex.
    Yes, I say uncategorically that it IS NOT a misogynistic reference to her sex. 

    1. She is in fact a woman.
    2. Her being a woman was not made an issue by anyone other than you.
    3. The insult was made to her personally. It was not "women should stay away from matters that require depth and nuance." As if people commenting on a tech site are unaware of all the women that have won Nobel Prizes or been CEOs of billion dollar corporations or something. It was Klobuchar stay away from matters that require depth and nuance. Good grief, did you see anyone on here telling the judge who screamed at Epic Games' lawyers to "stay away from matters that require depth and nuance"? Because that judge was female also.

    On this site if you are pro-Apple you get praised and if you are anti-Apple you get bashed. Simple as that. While this site did have issues with racist and classist commenters - though not misogynistic ones really - in the past that was cleared up by the hard work that moderators put in years ago (to the point that even legitimate right wing comments get hammered by the mods from time to time due their deciding to err on the side of caution or whatever).  
  • Reply 12 of 24
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    lkrupp said:
    “copy-aquire-kill”? Isn’t that what Microsoft called ‘embrace and extend’? And what happened to being ’sherlocked’? 
    Microsoft used embrace, extend extinguish tactics to replace open standard technologies with Microsoft-owned alternatives 

    "acquire" has a different implication, that Apple are buying out competitors or feature providers, only to remove them.  I'm not sure I can think of any examples of that though, the acquisitions that spring to mind all resulted in enhancements to Apple products.
  • Reply 13 of 24
    KuyangkohKuyangkoh Posts: 838member
    sdw2001 said:
    Oh great. Klobuchar. Often has her mind made up before ever getting the facts. Some seriously cringe stuff with her. 

    Please woman. Stay away from any matters that require depth and nuance. 
    She's not the worst of them, but she is exceptionally annoying and not very bright.  
    Apple probably now thinking, hmmm we gives big money and supports these clowns last election....now what?? You get what you paid for....
  • Reply 14 of 24
    boboliciousbobolicious Posts: 1,139member
    I have wondered it 'onboard' RAM, storage, T2, iCloud dependance and even 'right to repair' might subsume, presumably with arguments on both ends of the spectrum, and few options for long time customers with substantial sweat equity in a seemingly increasingly proprietary macOS and iCloud based computing platform...?
  • Reply 15 of 24
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    cloudguy said:
    cloudguy said:
    Misogyny aside
    Stuff like this is infuriating. Absolutely no references to her sex were made at all and nothing was said against her that hasn't been said against males tho take anti-Apple stances. As if Tim Sweeney of Epic Games or Google's Eric Schmidt gets positive treatment in these parts just because they are men or something.
    For the record, I was referring to this lovely statement in the first post above: “Please woman. Stay away from any matters that require depth and nuance.”

    You’re walking a fine line if you want to argue that’s not a misogynistic reference to her sex.
    Yes, I say uncategorically that it IS NOT a misogynistic reference to her sex. 

    1. She is in fact a woman.
    2. Her being a woman was not made an issue by anyone other than you.
    3. The insult was made to her personally. It was not "women should stay away from matters that require depth and nuance." As if people commenting on a tech site are unaware of all the women that have won Nobel Prizes or been CEOs of billion dollar corporations or something. It was Klobuchar stay away from matters that require depth and nuance. Good grief, did you see anyone on here telling the judge who screamed at Epic Games' lawyers to "stay away from matters that require depth and nuance"? Because that judge was female also.

    On this site if you are pro-Apple you get praised and if you are anti-Apple you get bashed. Simple as that. While this site did have issues with racist and classist commenters - though not misogynistic ones really - in the past that was cleared up by the hard work that moderators put in years ago (to the point that even legitimate right wing comments get hammered by the mods from time to time due their deciding to err on the side of caution or whatever).  
    Do you imagine the same poster would have replied to a thread about a male congressman doing the same thing with “Please man. Stay away from any matters that require depth and nuance.”

    I highly doubt they would have.  The word "woman" was there for an emphasis, and an unpleasant one.
    tmayronnGG1tenthousandthingsmacgui
  • Reply 16 of 24
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    Also, "uncategorically"?  Surely you mean "categorically"?  If not, I don't get your meaning, you're leaving open room for doubt?
    edited March 2021
  • Reply 17 of 24
    cloudguy said:
    cloudguy said:
    Misogyny aside
    Stuff like this is infuriating. Absolutely no references to her sex were made at all and nothing was said against her that hasn't been said against males tho take anti-Apple stances. As if Tim Sweeney of Epic Games or Google's Eric Schmidt gets positive treatment in these parts just because they are men or something.
    For the record, I was referring to this lovely statement in the first post above: “Please woman. Stay away from any matters that require depth and nuance.”

    You’re walking a fine line if you want to argue that’s not a misogynistic reference to her sex.
    Yes, I say uncategorically that it IS NOT a misogynistic reference to her sex. 

    1. She is in fact a woman.
    2. Her being a woman was not made an issue by anyone other than you.
    3. The insult was made to her personally. It was not "women should stay away from matters that require depth and nuance." As if people commenting on a tech site are unaware of all the women that have won Nobel Prizes or been CEOs of billion dollar corporations or something. It was Klobuchar stay away from matters that require depth and nuance. Good grief, did you see anyone on here telling the judge who screamed at Epic Games' lawyers to "stay away from matters that require depth and nuance"? Because that judge was female also.

    On this site if you are pro-Apple you get praised and if you are anti-Apple you get bashed. Simple as that. While this site did have issues with racist and classist commenters - though not misogynistic ones really - in the past that was cleared up by the hard work that moderators put in years ago (to the point that even legitimate right wing comments get hammered by the mods from time to time due their deciding to err on the side of caution or whatever).  
    Well, I was wondering if you would go ahead and try to walk that fine line, and you did. But you’re missing the larger point if you don’t think Amy Klobuchar doesn’t face misogyny every single day in her position. You’re also dreaming if you think that comment by “9secondkox” is neutral. It’s not. There are a lot of ways he could have chosen to criticize her, but doing so like that doesn’t cut it. The fact I know it’s a man (because no woman would say, “Please woman. ...”) tells you everything you need to know about that comment.
    edited March 2021 watto_cobra
  • Reply 18 of 24
    z3r0z3r0 Posts: 238member
    "Hey look, Apple has a crap ton of money, there's no way they could have accumulated that much without engaging in some unfair practice!  And if we can't find one, we'll just something they are doing 'unfair' and blast them over that!"
     Quick lets' make it look like they are engaging in some illegal practice that we just made up and put into law to explicitly target them so we can cash in on their reserves!
    edited March 2021 watto_cobra
  • Reply 19 of 24
    mobirdmobird Posts: 752member
    A lot of panties in a wad over this article.
    Give it a rest.
    This is a tech blog, not a social justice blog.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 20 of 24
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    mobird said:
    A lot of panties in a wad over this article.
    Give it a rest.
    This is a tech blog, not a social justice blog.
    Attacking the anti-misogynists, not the misogynists.  Way to lay your cards on the table there buddy.
    ronnmuthuk_vanalingam
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