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This is the kind of behavior that gets a company in trouble with the FTC. Indeed but Apple is aware that the FTC isn't likely to punish them enough that the be
by LordKano 12y ago
This is the kind of behavior that gets a company in trouble with the FTC.
Indeed but Apple is aware that the FTC isn't likely to punish them enough that the behavior will be a net negative.
If only the Federal Government would be as serious about "Sending a message" on antitrust as they are about low-mid level drug dealers, this kind of thing would be a lot more rare.
- Artemis2 12y agoI feel that Google/Apple should have been hit with an antitrust policy already some time ago.
- 31reasons 12y agoI am curious why would Google be in trouble with antitrust ?
- nilliams 12y agoThe EU announced antitrust charges against Google a couple of weeks ago [1]. tl;dr - '[T]he company has given an unfair advantage to its own comparison shopping service ...' [1] http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/apr/14/european-commission-antitrust-charges-google http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/apr/14/european-c...
- tsunamifury 12y agoNo charges were filed and likely never will be. This is merely a list of complaints.
- hellbanner 12y agoBecause they dominate search with their PageRank algorithm, they are a huge email provider, online calendar provider, among other services.
- bionsuba 12y agoProbably because they provide the best versions of those services. But hey, no good deed goes unpunished.
- XJOKOLAT 12y ago"Indeed but Apple is aware that the FTC isn't likely to punish them enough that the behavior will be a net negative." If we believe in what we write, then we should punish them.
- xbmcuser 12y agoFTC won't but European union probably will plus in Europe they fine you a percentage of total revenue of company which for Apple could be over 15billion. My recommendation to any one developing for apple devices is be ready to be blocked or kicked out of the app store if you are too successful. As apple will enter the market and if they do they will start applying rules they were ignoring earlier as those were selling devices for them but now they don't need you as you are a competitor so out you go.
- cududa 12y agoBut Apple doesn't have anywhere near a monopoly on smart phones, so being anti-competitive is completely legal
- justonepost 12y agoYep. This is the long and short of it. Apple is careful not to get monopolies which allows them to be as anti-competitive as they want. Not sure why this got downvoted. Typical HN..
- Oletros 12y agoWhat? Doing an anti competitive practice is legal if you don't have a monopoly?
- moskie 12y agoThat is my understanding. For example, Microsoft got in trouble for pre-installing IE on Windows because they had monopoly in the OS market. If they didn't have that monopoly, they would not have been penalized.
- brianpgordon 12y agoHaving a monopoly might put you under the microscope, but you certainly can't get away with anticompetitive practices like price fixing or wage fixing even if you don't have a monopoly.
- jahewson 12y agoYes but those are just about the only things which you can't get away with. The US has very weak consumer protection laws in general.
- LordKano 12y agoCollusion. Retail price maintenance. Dividing territories. Exclusive dealing. These are all anti-competitive behavior that will get one smacked by Federal regulators without being a monopoly.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- Sir_Substance 12y ago>Indeed but Apple is aware that the FTC isn't likely to punish them enough that the behavior will be a net negative. That makes it correct game theory, Apple has to do it because every other company does it. So it's necessary, but that doesn't make it fair. So apparently the FTC won't punish them enough for it to be a net negative. Oh well, I guess that's it then. No one else has responsibility, right? Wrong! We have responsibility. The good news is, you don't have to work hard at it. If you want to punish apple for this, just stop buying their shit. It's actually easier than not doing it!