Tim Cook to participate in antitrust hearing next week

Jul 21, 2020 16:28 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft president and chief legal officer Brad Smith has reportedly discussed a series of topics, including possible Apple App Store antitrust violations, in a digital meeting with the United States House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee members ahead of a public hearing next week.

A report from The Information reveals that Microsoft has specifically been contacted because of the company’s history in antitrust cases, as the software giant has previously been investigated, and eventually fined, over the way Internet Explorer was offered to Windows users.

Smith, however, once again complained of Apple’s App Story policy after he previously called for an antitrust investigation over the requirements of the Cupertino-based tech giant earlier this year.

Public antitrust hearing next Monday

At a Politico event in June, Smith explained that Apple charges up to 30 percent for developers who publish their apps in the App Store and accepting such requirements is pretty much the only way to go for anyone who want their iOS apps to be offered to iPhone and iPad users.

“They impose requirements that increasingly say there is only one way to get on to our platform and that is to go through the gate that we ourselves have created,” Smith said.

“In some cases they create a very high price per toll - in some cases 30% of your revenue has to go to the toll keeper. The time has come - whether we are talking about D.C. or Brussels - for a much more focused conversation about the nature of app stores, the rules that are being put in place, the prices and the tolls that are being extracted and whether there is really a justification in antitrust law for everything that has been created.”

Representatives of a series of tech giants, including Apple CEO Tim Cook, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg are scheduled to appear in an antitrust hearing next week to discuss several competition concerns. Cook is likely to address these Microsoft complaints as well.