The Federal Cartel Office initiated proceedings against the American technology group Apple on Monday to investigate its market power.

After investigations against Facebook, Amazon and Google have already been initiated in the past few months, there are now proceedings against all four large American technology groups.

Jonas Jansen

Business correspondent in Düsseldorf.

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    With the 10th amendment to the Act against Restraints of Competition, the so-called GWB Digitization Act, the market watchdogs are able to take stronger action against digital companies than before. In a two-stage process, the Cartel Office can prohibit anti-competitive practices. In the case of Apple, the Bonn authority has now initiated the first stage to determine the cross-market significance of the technology group, which is one of the most valuable companies in the world.

    "We will now check whether Apple has built a digital ecosystem around the iPhone with the proprietary iOS operating system across several markets," announced the Cartel Office President Andreas Mundt in a press release.

    In addition to its devices such as the iPhone, iPad, Mac computers or Apple Watch, Apple also sells services for the devices - such as cloud access, the Apple Music music service, and a games platform and a platform for films and series.

    It is precisely these ecosystems, which extend over several markets, that could make it more difficult for competitors to attack the existing power of corporations, the competition watchdogs fear.

    Apple looks forward to "open dialogue"

    Apple said on request that the company is proud to be an "engine for innovation and jobs".

    In addition, a spokesman pointed to data protection in the App Store.

    "We look forward to discussing our approach with the Federal Cartel Office and having an open dialogue about any concerns," he said.

    In addition to the position of the company with its devices and additional services, the cartel office also wants to deal with the “technological and financial resources of the company and its access to data”, Mundt was quoted as saying.

    "One focus of the investigation will be on the operation of the app store, as it enables Apple in many ways to influence the business activities of third parties."

    There is always a dispute about the fees for providers of apps: the Swedish music streaming service Spotify, for example, feels that Apple has treated it unfairly, and after a complaint, the EU Commission accused Apple of unfair competition in its app store. As recently as April, competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager stated that Apple was putting other providers of music streaming apps at a disadvantage.

    Apple repeatedly argues that developer fees are only charged for 15 percent of apps, namely for those that are not free.

    A 30 percent commission - which is often mentioned in the public debate - would only have to be paid by the developers who turn over more than a million dollars, for the rest of the developers using the app store would cost 15 percent.

    Apple introduced this price cut last November after increasing public pressure on the company.

    Complaints from all sides

    However, the Cartel Office has also received complaints from app developers who are concerned about the commission in the App Store. Therefore, the authority wants to exchange ideas with the Commission and other competition authorities in Europe, she announced. Because of further complaints, the Cartel Office is planning to take a closer look at Apple's specific behavior in an additional procedure.

    Associations from the advertising and media industry complained about the tracking setting with the new iOS 14.5 operating system - which should make it more difficult for advertisers to create user profiles.

    Users must expressly consent to receiving an individualized identification number for advertising.

    Naturally, many users don't do that.

    That in turn makes the advertising industry tremble and feel disadvantaged compared to Apple.

    Their fear: Apple is taking advantage of the fact that the company has more data on its users and is preferring its own services.

    For the time being, however, there is only an initial investigation against Apple.

    There are three proceedings each running against the online retail giant Amazon and the Internet group Google.

    The cartel guards are currently investigating the market power of the social network Facebook in two proceedings.

    Not only in Europe, but also in their home markets, the technology corporations are threatened with hardship: just a few weeks ago the House of Representatives presented five bills to Congress in Washington that could limit the power of Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook.

    It would be the most significant change to American antitrust laws in a long time.

    US President Joe Biden has also made the 32-year-old Lina Khan, a sharp critic of the tech companies, head of the FTC antitrust authority.

    As a law student in 2017, she caused a sensation when she published an essay on Amazon, cartels and monopolies at Yale University, which mainly dealt with the growing influence of digital corporations.