https://www.justice.gov/archives/atr/competition-and-monopoly-single-firm-conduct-under-section-2-sherman-act-chapter-5 https://www.justice.gov/archives/atr/com

https://www.justice.gov/archives/atr/competition-and-monopoly-single-firm-conduct-under-section-2-sherman-act-chapter-5 https://www.justice.gov/archives/atr/competition-and-monopol... Your interpretation on tying is not well aligned with usual legal interpretation. Unless the App Store is considered not to be a separate product (which had been Apple's argument for a long time on App Store and Safari by designating them as "system services of iOS"), this is clearly tying. The question is if Apple's current practice is illegal tying or not. Whether the customer wants it or not is not important here; you can give them freely to gain market dominance then reap profits later on whenever the competitors are all gone.