The U.S. Department of Justice has given its backing and endorsement to the antitrust bill that will target Apple and other big tech competitors that are mainly based in Silicon Valley.
Antitrust Bill for Cupertino?
This is bad news for the Cupertino-based giant as the bill will limit how much the company can continue with its business model and standards such as forcing alternative App Store payments as well as selling its products like the iPhone, with numerous other impacts.
The Wall Street Journal has reported that the Department of Justice seeks to witness the end of “large digital platforms” such as Apple, Google, Meta (Facebook), Amazon, and more favoring their own products and services over competitors:
“The Justice Department Monday endorsed legislation forbidding large digital platforms such as Amazon and Google from favoring their own products and services over competitors’, marking the Biden administration’s first full-throated support of the antitrust measure.”
A letter by the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee signed by the Justice Department’s acting assistant attorney general for legislative affairs — Peter Hyun states:
“The Department views the rise of dominant platforms as presenting a threat to open markets and competition, with risks for consumers, businesses, innovation, resiliency, global competitiveness, and our democracy.”
Despite the statement and the bipartisan support in Congress, there is still large doubtfulness about the bill to pass:
“But it still hasn’t received a vote on the floor of either chamber, and it faces industry resistance as well as skepticism on both sides of the aisle. Some conservatives are wary of expanding the government’s power to police digital markets, while some Democrats, particularly from California, say the legislation unfairly targets a handful of large companies.”
The letter goes further and notes that big tech corporations such as Apple use biased behavior to “sap the rewards from other innovators and entrepreneurs, reducing the incentives for entrepreneurship and innovation”. The Department of Justice says that the antitrust bill will help grow new tech businesses that won’t rely on big corporations while they aid themselves to regulate required actions in the future.
Appleosophy’s Take
The Antitrust Bill still has a long way to pass as well as its doubtfulness for measures to take, but with all the hearings from CEOs like Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, and Sundar Pichai, in addition to the agenda of the current American government under President Biden, Apple and the big tech rivals will likely use lobbying in order to achieve their goals and their agendas.
