" alt="" title=""/>A group of US senators on Wednesday asked officials from Apple Inc. and Google of Alphabet Inc. about the dominance of their mobile app stores and whether the companies are abusing their power at the expense of smaller competitors.
Amy Klobuchar, the Senate Democrat leader on antitrust issues, said Apple and Google could use their powers to “ban or suppress apps that compete with their own products” and “impose excessive fees that undermine competition.”
App manufacturers like the music streaming service Spotify Technology SA and the dating service provider Match Group, which owns the Tinder app, have long complained that the mandatory revenue sharing for the sale of digital goods and the strict inclusion rules imposed in the Apple’s App Store for iPhones and iPads, along with Google’s Play Store for Android devices is anti-competitive behavior.
Representatives from Apple and Google told senators that corporations’ tight control over their businesses and related revenue sharing requirements are necessary to enforce and pay for security measures to protect consumers from harmful apps and practices.
However, at the request of Senator Josh Hawley, Apple’s Chief Compliance Officer Kyle Andeer would not commit to spending all mandatory security fees.
Statements by Andeer and Google’s Wilson White, senior director of government affairs, why the company’s fees don’t apply to Uber Technologies Inc and why apps that sell physical goods didn’t satisfy the senators either.
“I feel like an unfrozen caveman attorney,” said Senator Mike Lee. “I don’t get it.”
Senator Richard Blumenthal expressed concern about a call Match received from his business partner on Google late Tuesday.
Match chief legal officer Jared Sine said Google wanted to know why Sine’s planned testimony, which had just been released, differed from previous comments from the dating company.
“It looks like a threat, it speaks like a threat, it is a threat,” said Blumenthal of the call and promised to investigate Google’s actions further.
Google’s White said the call reflected an effort to ask an honest question and the company would never threaten partners.
In its testimonial, Match’s Sine argued that both Google and Apple charge 30 percent of all digital transactions, which increases prices for consumers.
Match pays nearly $ 500 million in annual fees to app stores, the company’s largest single cost, Sine said.
According to Spotify and Match, Apple’s app review process has been opaque. According to Sine, Apple has blocked a security update for the Tinder app to warn LGBTQ + users if they are traveling to a country where it could be dangerous to reveal their identity, as Apple said the update was against the “spirit.” “a new rule.
But Apple wouldn’t explain how to fix the problem, Sine said. He said Apple didn’t approve the update two months later after the executives at Match’s then-parent company, IAC / Interactivecorp, raised the issue with Apple’s executives.
The hearing came the day after Apple announced it was selling AirTags that can be attached to items like car keys so users can find them if they are lost. This is in direct competition with Tile, which has been selling a similar tracking device for over a decade.
Apple said its AirTags were a result of its “FindMy” app, used to find lost Apple devices and share user locations, launched in 2010 before Tile was founded. Apple opened its operating system to alternative item trackers last month, stating that Chipolo, a startup that competes with Tile and AirTags, is using the system.
Kirsten Daru, General Counsel of Tile, testified that Apple’s FindMy program is installed by default on Apple phones and cannot be deleted.
“Apple has once again used its market power and dominance to shape our customers’ access to data in a way that effectively impacts our user experience and directs our users to FindMy,” she said.
