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JFTC says Apple, Google abuse their superior bargaining positions’

As noted by AppleInsider, a Japanese Fair Trade Commission report stops short of directly ordering that Apple must allow a third-party App Store, but its investigation clearly concludes that one is necessary.

Apple and Google have been under investigation by the Japanese Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) since October 2021, chiefly regarding their app store dominance. The regulator has now published its findings, which are critical of both firms’ “abuse of a superior bargaining position.”

In October 2021, the JFTC announced that it would investigate whether Apple and Google are leveraging their dominance in the smartphone operating system market to eliminate competition and severely limit options for consumers. The study involved interviews and surveys with OS operators, app developers and smartphone users.

Dennis Sellers
the authorDennis Sellers
Dennis Sellers is the editor/publisher of Apple World Today. He’s been an “Apple journalist” since 1995 (starting with the first big Apple news site, MacCentral). He loves to read, run, play sports, and watch movies.