Written by: Haim Ravia, Dotan Hammer
Tech giants Google and Apple have recently lost court cases related to anti-competitive practices in their platforms and applications.
In Brazil, Apple has been facing scrutiny over its practice of allowing iOS apps to be available exclusively through the App Store, barring new competitors from entering the app distribution market. The Administrative Council for Economic Defense (Cade) issued an injunction requiring Apple to allow iOS app distribution outside of its App Store, or “sideloading”, within 20 days, sparking a legal battle over the decision.
The injunction was overturned as unnecessary, then reinstated, and again rejected on appeal. It is now up to Cade to decide whether to appeal the decision and attempt to force Apple to allow sideloading. A similar case in Europe was resolved with Apple allowing sideloading within the EU.
Concurrently, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that Google’s practice of preventing external applications from accessing its Android Auto constitutes an abuse of its market power and dominant position.
In its decision, the CJEU ruled that a company that develops digital infrastructure, like Google, may not prevent third-party access when that “does not fundamentally alter the economic model that applied to the development of that infrastructure”. The restrictions do not apply to cases where the infrastructure was originally developed solely for Google’s use or when objective justification may be given.
The decision can potentially force platform developers to ensure interoperability with third-party apps, significantly hindering the ability of tech giants to prevent new actors from competing with their apps on their platforms.
Click here to read the CJEU decision.
