Apple has ruffled a few feathers globally with its regulations around the App Store as well as the Apple Pay. Besides an anti-trust probe by the European Commission, the company is also facing charges of abusing its market authority in India. Now Apple wants the case thrown out because it's India operations are way too small.
The company, which is being probed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) over allegations of forcing app developers to use its proprietary system, has filed a response claiming that its India operations are way too small to affect the market.
A report by Reuters states that Apple denied anti-trust allegations claiming that its market share in India was an insignificant 0.5% whereas it's rival Google commanded between 90-100% of the market. The reason being the obvious preference for the Android-based devices in India due to its lower costs compared to Apple products.
- Apple hit with record antitrust fine
- Google facing huge antitrust probe in US
The battle beyond Indian shores
Apple claims that since it controlled a minuscule percentage of the market, there is no way it could be said to abuse the market power of the App Store. The complaint filed at the CCI suggested that Apple hurt competition by forcing app developers to use proprietary systems that require large commissions during in-app purchases.
In the anti-trust case by the European Commission, it's executive vice president Margrethe Vestager had said, “Mobile applications have fundamentally changed the way we access content. Apple sets the rules for the distribution of apps to users of iPhones and iPads. It appears that Apple obtained a “gatekeeper” role when it comes to the distribution of apps and content to users of Apple's popular devices. We need to ensure that Apple's rules do not distort competition in markets where Apple is competing with other app developers."
However, in Apple's response to the CCI notice, the company claimed that without dominance there can be no abuse. It has already been established that Google is the dominant player in India," says the submission (dated November 16, 2021) signed by the company's chief compliance officer Kyle Andeer.
The submission also suggested that instead of looking at Apple individually, the CCI should be taking the entire Indian smartphone market and that for apps as well as licensable operating systems such as Android into consideration.
In fact, Apple went a step further claiming that the case before the CCI was one of "proxy filing". In other words, suggesting that the complainant was acting on behalf of someone else with whom Apple has contractual disputes globally. Of course, the company did not provide any evidence to substantiate this charge.
On its part, the complainant, a not-for-profit group, has counter-punched with the comment that Apple was attempting to prejudice the case by suggesting that it was a proxy battle and wasn't really one involving abuse of market authority.
Just so that readers are aware, the CCI is also investigating a similar complaint over Google's in-app payment system which was questioned by app makers in India over the same issue of excessive commissions.
Of course, what we are confused about now is whether Apple can actually use its claim of being too small a player as an excuse for charging more commission on its in-app purchases. What was that we learnt about nipping something in the bud?
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