German federal judges indicated on Tuesday that they could back the country’s antitrust regulator in a legal battle with Apple — and impose additional controls, reports Reuters.
The German cartel office said in April 2023 it considered Apple a “company of paramount cross-market significance for competition,” opening the door to possible measures curbing its dominance, the article adds.
Wolfgang Kirchhoff, presiding judge on the panel assessing Apple’s appeal against the designation, said an overall assessment had shown it could be true that Apple has such significance across markets. However, the Federal Court of Justice held off on handing down a ruling on Tuesday, calling for more time to deliberate.
In June 2022 Germany’s Federal Cartel Office (FCO), the Bundeskartellamt has announced that it’s initiated a proceeding against Apple to review its tracking rules and the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) Framework. In particular, the agency says “Apple’s rules have raised the initial suspicion of self-preferencing and/or impediment of other companies.”
And in April 2023, the FCO found that Apple is one of the strongest companies in the world in terms of sales and profits and the operator of a comprehensive digital ecosystem with high significance for competition not only in Germany, but also in Europe and worldwide. According to the FCO, the company has a strong market position across various market levels including smartphones, tablets and smartwatches, and proprietary operating systems. Furthermore, FCO said “the Apple App Store is the only digital distribution platform for apps as well as other software products.”
The German agency then began investigating Apple for antitrust violations.
Apple’s legal team asked for the court to discuss the matter with the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg ahead of making a decision, on the belief that EU and German law don’t necessarily line up. Judge Kirchhoff said the judges failed to see any grounds for such contact to be made, according to Reuters.
