The US Division of Justice has obtained mail: A coalition of greater than a dozen tech advocacy teams wrote to the company right now calling on it to launch an investigation into allegedly anticompetitive conduct by Apple.
The letter says that Apple’s recent blocking of Beeper, which reverse engineered iMessage to permit compatibility with Android phones, is one other instance of Apple “abusing its energy to stifle competitors and shield its famed ‘walled backyard.’” It was despatched by the Tech Oversight Undertaking, which campaigns for more durable tech regulation.
A second letter was despatched to the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday by Demand Progress, which works on internet-related civil liberties, asking it to launch its personal Apple probe. Greater than a dozen different progressive advocacy teams cosigned the 2 letters, together with the Digital Frontier Basis, the American Financial Liberties Undertaking, and Struggle for the Future.
The Division of Justice has been reported to be investigating Apple over antitrust issues since at least 2020. Tech Oversight Undertaking’s letter to the DOJ urged it to speed up that work and file an antitrust swimsuit in opposition to Apple, pointing to what it known as a “lengthy, ongoing historical past of anticompetitive conduct, together with favoring its personal merchandise on its units, unfair insurance policies for third-party apps and management of the App Retailer market, and utilizing its dominance to crush smaller opponents.” Bloomberg reported earlier in December that an EU antitrust investigation might make an enforcement determination in opposition to Apple over its management of the app retailer in early 2024.
The letter to the DOJ additionally cited the latest shutdown of Beeper Mini and prior complaints by Tile, maker of a monitoring machine, that its product’s performance was affected by Apple when the iPhone maker launched its personal AirTag trackers.
In its personal letter, Demand Progress, which claims greater than 1,000,000 members, appealed to Dick Durbin, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Amy Klobuchar, chair of that group’s subcommittee on antitrust, to name for a public listening to and investigation into Apple’s practices, together with its technique of protecting iMessage unique to its personal units.
“Apple is trying to squash efforts to streamline messaging between Apple and Android units,” the letter reads. It cites accusations that by making messages from folks with out iPhones seem in inexperienced bubbles, Apple exploits peer stress, particularly on youngsters, to advance its personal pursuits. The corporate didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Pile On
The Apple-Beeper episode has triggered new stress on Apple to loosen its tight management of its companies. On December 17, 4 US senators wrote to the assistant lawyer basic of the DOJ’s antitrust division, Jonathan Kanter, calling for the division to analyze whether or not Apple doubtlessly violated antitrust legal guidelines when it minimize off a few of Beeper’s performance between Android messages and iMessage.
Beeper, a three-year-old Silicon Valley startup, launched its Beeper Mini app on December 5 to bridge the hole between SMS messaging on Android telephones and Apple’s iMessage protocol on iPhones. The app runs on Android telephones and initially value $2 per thirty days however is now provided without cost.
