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by ApolloFortyNine19 hours ago |
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upvoteby twoodfin12 hours ago|
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Which monopoly is Apple abusing?
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upvoteby ascorbic3 hours ago|
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EU law doesn't actually require a monopoly for competition rules to apply, it's a "dominant position". Apple certainly meets that definition for smartphone platforms.

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/EN/legal-content/glossary/competit...

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upvoteby petcat2 hours ago|
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Geez even the EU's own government websites are polluted with cookie banners. Apparently they can't resist tracking their visitors either.
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upvoteby Gud4 hours ago|
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Distribution of software on iOS?
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upvoteby pjmlp4 hours ago|
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That isn't one by law.
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upvoteby IneffablePigeon3 hours ago|
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Which law? Seems like it is under EU law.
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upvoteby pjmlp3 hours ago|
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Any country in the world with working democracy, there is a very precise definition of what monopoly is.
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upvoteby happymellon3 hours ago|
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> In law, a monopoly is a business entity that has significant market power, that is, the power to charge overly high prices, which is associated with unfair price raises.[3] Although monopolies may be big businesses, size is not a characteristic of a monopoly. A small business may still have the power to raise prices in a small industry (or market).[3]

All countries with a working democracy would class Apple as a monopoly as it has significant market power, enough to distort prices.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly

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upvoteby pjmlp2 hours ago|
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Not for the nerd definition of iOS as a market.

The market is mobile devices.

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upvoteby AnthonyMouse1 hours ago|
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A market is the set of things which are fungible substitutes for each other. Essentially every brand of gasoline is in the same market. By contrast, gasoline and diesel are separate markets, because some vehicles require gasoline and can't use diesel and others the other way around. They're not substitutes when your vehicle can only use one of them and you can't get out of it by trying to claim that the market is all types of fuel.

Now suppose you have an iPhone and want to download an app, or want to distribute your app to customers many of which have an iPhone. What substitute for Apple's store is available to do that?

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upvoteby pjmlp27 minutes ago|
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The same way you have a Playstation and don't want to pay Sony for the game.
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upvoteby happymellon1 hours ago|
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We aren't talking about nerd definitions. We are talking about the real world.

Apple can change their rules and it materially impacts the market.

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upvoteby pjmlp28 minutes ago|
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The real world is that outside US, Apple hardly has a monopoly in mobile phones.
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upvoteby subarctic6 hours ago|
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Apple and google essentially own 99%+ of the smartphone market, so it's not that different from a monopoly
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upvoteby Alifatisk6 hours ago|
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Duopoly
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upvoteby ApolloFortyNine12 hours ago|
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iPhone apps.

If it helps, think if Windows apps had a 5% Microsoft tax and had to be approved by Apple.

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upvoteby 10 hours ago|
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upvoteby twoodfin11 hours ago|
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I assume you mean approved by Microsoft.

When they were found in the US to have a monopoly, they had around 95% of personal computer operating system share. Apple isn’t even close.

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upvoteby happymellon3 hours ago|
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Just because they took too long to look at a problem, does not stop something else from being a problem.
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upvoteby mvdtnz10 hours ago|
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Really? What would you estimate is Apple's market share of iPhone apps if it's so far below 95%?
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upvoteby syradar9 hours ago|
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We both know that the market share refers to the smartphone market share of which Apple has about 21%.

For iPhone apps Apple is way behind with about 0.005% of the total 2.17 million iPhone apps.

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upvoteby alkonaut4 hours ago|
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The ONLY interesting market share here isn't how many apps Apple create, or how large share of the smartphones they have. It's how much of the distribution of apps they control on iOS (which easily reaches the bar of being a market in itself).

I.e. the monopoly question is: if apple takes X% for each app in this market, and a competitor can't take less, then it's a monopoly.

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upvoteby like_any_other9 hours ago|
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'Monopoly' is the wrong term. It's abuse of market power.
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upvoteby stahtops5 hours ago|
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I just don’t get the outrage. If you made HATS and wanted to sell them at STORE, do you think you get to just walk into STORE and tell the manager/owner:

1) find some space on the shelf and your stock room to put my stuff! 2) I don’t have a store with shelves or visiting customers, but you will sell this for me at 0% profit!

You’re paying for sales access to millions of devices with frictionless checkout.

And you want to… make it harder to check out? Because you think you’re entitled sell things to their user base?

No one wants to go to your website. You’re crazy.

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upvoteby Humphrey5 hours ago|
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Agree.

However, in this scenario every neighbourhood only has 2 STORES - and each CUSTOMER only shops at one of these STORES.

Then, if you made HATS, the only way to sell HATS is to get them on the shelves of both those stores.

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This is Australia: two major supermarkets - so the only way to sell a lot of your product is to submit to the terms of Coles or Woolworths.

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upvoteby alkonaut3 hours ago|
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I think the fundamental thing here is that this isn't merely a store. The Apple ecosystem is large enough to BE a market in itself.

It's not about the market for apps, or the market for smartphones. Those markets are comparable to any market.

This is about the market for apps ON the apple ecosystem. And the problem that is being solved is: Apple can't have a monopoly on that market, such that they can (for example) charge a commission for every sale.

Basically: we can't allow a company to be so successful that their STORE becomes a MARKET.

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