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Antitrust would not apply here as Apple's share of the smartphone market is less than monopolistic. There is a stronger case against Amazon for selling Amazon-
by ppeetteerr 8y ago
Antitrust would not apply here as Apple's share of the smartphone market is less than monopolistic.
There is a stronger case against Amazon for selling Amazon-branded, well-moving products like batteries and diapers, even though they don't stifle the other brands.
- jcranmer 8y ago> Antitrust would not apply here as Apple's share of the smartphone market is less than monopolistic. Having had to take antitrust training at my company in the past few weeks, I can say that you are very mistaken if you think antitrust only kicks in when the company is a monopoly.
- ppeetteerr 8y agoCan you elaborate on why I am mistaken?
- jcranmer 8y agoAntitrust covers in general anticompetitive practices, and has done so since the original Sherman Antitrust Act. So, for example, colluding with another business to fix prices is covered under antitrust, even if the sum of the businesses concerned do not constitute a monopolistic power in the industry. The other common category is the various rules around the preference of a company's other product lines over competitors--the line between "legal" and "illegal" is a little more blurry here. You can fall afoul of these conditions if you have "sufficient market power", which is a substantially broader claim than "monopoly power." I don't think there's any lawyer that would try to claim that Apple doesn't have "market power"--note that the smartphone market, from an OS perspective, is basically a duopoly.
- ppeetteerr 8y agoYou _might_ have an argument here: "The other common category is the various rules around the preference of a company's other product lines over competitors". We'll see what the courts decide
- tptacek 8y agoYou can just look at the case history. https://www.justice.gov/atr/antitrust-case-filings https://www.justice.gov/atr/antitrust-case-filings
- nicoburns 8y agoApple/Google is pretty much a duopoly. Which can be as bad.
- ilikehurdles 8y agoIf we make this about phone sales, sure. If the market is mobile app purchases, Apple’s platform and store is absolutely the dominant player.
- JackFr 8y agoIn a more fitting analogy, Amazon is actually a model citizen compared to Apple. Both Hulu and Netflix compete directly with Prime Video, and both 1) are available as free apps for Kindle and the Amazon Fire Stick TV and 2) literally rely on Amazon hardware to run through AWS.
- sinnoh 8y agono reason not to go after both. "Two wrongs" and all.