The German Federal Cartel Office, Bundeskartellamt, has opened the first step of a proceeding against Apple to assess whether the company is of paramount significance across markets. The anti-trust authority will examine whether Apple has created an ecosystem extending across several markets with its proprietary operating system iOS. It will investigate how the company has positioned itself to integrate across several market levels, the magnitude of its technological and financial resources and its access to data. The investigation will also focus on the operation of the App Store that enables Apple to influence the business activities of third parties.
The Cartel Office said it has received complaints about Apple’s potentially anti-competitive practices, including a complaint accusing Apple of restricting user tracking with the introduction of its iOS 14.5 operating system, and a complaint against the exclusive pre-installation of the company’s own applications.
App developers are also criticizing the mandatory use of Apple’s own in-app purchase system and the 30 percent commission charged by Apple for this. For this reason, the anti-trust authority will also address marketing restrictions for app developers in Apple’s App Store. The Bundeskartellamt intends to assess in more detail specific practices of Apple in a possible further proceeding, it said.
