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So what is “competing normally”?


Lowering prices or adding value, advertising.

Doing stuff like blocking competitors from your platform, blacklisting people who do business with your competition would be examples of not competing normally.

What Apple is doing is more subtle though - in general they are not using their position against Google, they are using it to force arbitrary conditions on companies seeking to do business on iOS and increase their own profits, to the detriment of end users.

I believe the ultimate test for market abuse in the US is considered something like business practices that harm other companies without benefit to the end user. If the end user gets lower prices or better value Thanks to your practices, the free market is achieving its purpose. If they are not, but one company is getting better profits, than the market is being manipulated. As a side note, this is not the same test as in the EU for example, which makes price dumping (selling below cost of production) usually ok in the US, but not in the EU.


And once again HN lawyers don’t understand the law. The US unlike Europe has to show consumer harm. Not harm to other businesses. This has been the school of thought since Bork.

Apple hasn’t blocked competitors. For every service that Apple charges money for, there is a competitor.

Every platform owner and reseller forces conditions on third parties - console makers, set top box sellers, physical retail stores, etc.

If what you said was any kind of reality, Apple or any other company could be accused of being a “monopoly” if they had any type of margins. Saying Apple is a monopoly because users choose to spend more is about like saying Nike is a monopoly when other shoes are cheaper.

It is not anti competitive to have a differentiator where users choose to spend more on your product than competitors.




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