Facebook should prepare antitrust lawsuit against Apple
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Facebook is currently preparing an antitrust lawsuit against Apple. In it, the social media giant accuses the iPhone group of market abuse. Apple prefers its own services.
On Wednesday, Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg had already dealt against Apple in an interview with analysts after the quarterly figures were presented. One sees Apple increasingly as “one of our greatest competitors”. And, according to Zuckerberg: “Apple may claim that they are doing it to help people – but their steps clearly follow their competitive interests.” Specifically, the dispute between the two big tech companies is about Apple’s planned tightening of data protection in iOS apps. Facebook is said to be working on a market abuse lawsuit.
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Facebook: Apple prefers its own services
According to one Report from the US portal The Information Facebook has been preparing an antitrust lawsuit for several months and has also brought external lawyers on board. Facebook’s accusation is that Apple prefers its own services like iMessage because it excludes them from the rules that apply to the app store. Specifically, it is about the specifications for in-app purchases and innovations in data protection, which Apple is planning how heise.de explains.
For example, Apple wants app operators who offer their applications via the Group’s app store to have to obtain a declaration of consent (opt-in) from users if they want to collect their data. Otherwise, at least according to Facebook’s fear, Apple could block relevant apps from its store. Facebook also fears that this will make the personalization of advertising less precise in the future. This would shake the Group’s promise to advertising customers to precisely meet the desired target group.
Apple is slowing the economy, criticizes Facebook
But Facebook not only sees its own business model at risk. Poor personalized advertising would damage small and medium-sized companies in particular, which were particularly dependent on Facebook as a platform for their business during the corona crisis. Finally, Facebook collects data from various sources “to help small businesses to reach their customers more efficiently,” as Zuckerberg told analysts on Wednesday. Apple’s approach could therefore slow down the entire economy.
What Facebook wants to achieve with the lawsuit is not yet clear. Especially since the lawsuit is also met with resistance internally, according to The Information. The group would not make a convincing victim in view of its own data scandals, employees should criticize. Accordingly, it is not yet entirely clear whether the lawsuit will really come about. If so, Facebook could demand compensation or a weakening of the data protection rules, which should be a thorn in the side of the group. Most recently, the game manufacturer Epic had opposed Apple.
