Self-preferencing (No. 2) and data interoperability (No. 5) would force major changes in Apple’s MO.
From The Verge’s “House lawmakers introduce five bipartisan bills to unwind tech monopolies” posted Friday
The package unveiled Friday includes five measures targeting the different ways in which tech companies maintain market dominance.
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- One bill would empower the Justice Department or the Federal Trade Commission to break up tech firms by forcing them to sell off parts of their business that could create a conflict of interest — potentially forcing Amazon to carve off house brands like Amazon Basics.
- Another bill would bar companies from giving their own services preference over their rivals, like Google boosting its own products in search results over competitors.
- Yet another bill would block companies like Facebook from buying up nascent competitors like in the 2012 acquisition of Instagram.
- The last two bills are less controversial. Last week, the Senate already passed a measure put out by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) that would boost merger filing fees for large companies, giving antitrust enforcers more money to take on cases. A bill mirroring that legislation was introduced Wednesday.
- The last bill would force platforms to make the data they collect interoperable in order to make it easier for users to jump from one service to another. Both Republicans and Democrats seem eager to move forward on data portability legislation. (numbering mine)
My take: This is big. A for effort. How much gets through the Senate remains to be seen.
Making more than the phone part of a Cell Phone data-interoperable strikes me as a very complex undertaking, and I’m not sure at all how it would be implemented without some sort of technically competent 3rd party to manage the effort and resolve all the technical issues and business rules.
See also https://dilbert.com/strip/1994-10-17
Digital changed all that. The identifier was not a physical port on a local exchange, it was an embedded code within the handset. Now it didn’t matter WHERE your phone was, the PTSN could find you. Congress likes to think it forced the change. The reality was that the proliferation of telecommunication devices (primarily modems and fax machines) made portability an absolute necessity. Transportable telephone number took the pressure off the finite supply of telephone numbers.
If we could access all our personal data from LinkedIn (not including their secondary and tertiary metadata), that would be great.
Agree Brother Fred. I wrote similarly in my comment before reading yours’. Your corroboration gives me consolation that I am comfortable (to a degree) with this section of the proposed legislation. It just needs to be fleshed out more and little doubt that this fleshing out will be done indeed.
No matter how portable one may claim to make the data, it is still going to be a pain in the ass to move from one garden to the other – walls or moats or not.
I remember trying to go from a Treo 650 to an iPhone 3G. Not a pleasant process. And no-one was “trying to make it difficult”. I don’t think Apple ever says “you can;t leave the Walled Garden”: they don’t have to, because people don’t *want* to.
I do hear complaints from Apple users of having to navigate additional steps to get to their library of music because Apple blocks initial access with ads to try 3 month’s free trail of Apple Music, which these users say they do not want and do not desire the perpetual imposition imposed on them by Apple’s incessant reminder offering.
“…. Both Republicans and Democrats seem eager to move forward on data portability legislation.”
The data portability legislation is palatable to me as it seems a legitimate means of introducing competitiveness between tech rivals to ensure they are providing highest quality services on a level playing field (no matter the cost offering) for users to decide which service better meets their needs.
I am having a difficult time seeing how either of the proposals above addresses the App Store 30/15 fee; or am I correct that neither proposal does?
“Right now, unregulated tech monopolies have too much power over our economy. They are in a unique position to pick winners and losers, destroy small businesses, raise prices on consumers, and put folks out of work,” Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) said in a statement Friday.
My take is the ails of our economy and society are not coming from Big Tech in the way the Rep Cicilline describes. Do we need laws to protect commerce yes! Are there anti trust concerns that should be acted on yes? Do you think the government knows how small businesses grow into Large businesses? Probably not. Protect me from bad actors but please remember the government can do great damage trying to manage who wins and loses in business and the economy. Probably as much as Big Tech. Maybe more.
What we really need are enforceable laws to protect us from politicians.
Unless of course, Sen. McConnell becomes a Democrat. Yeah, that unlikely.
Apple doesn’t *need* to give their own services preference over their rivals. All they need to do is slap a label on it: “Developer: Apple”
Done deal. Many people will prefer it by default. (I don’t buy the “Kroger brand” by default. Sorry, it’s true.)
When I just looked for “maps” for giggles, Google Maps came up on top of the list. I occasionally run both, but Apple Maps is on my Home Screen.
OK, fine, Apple buys Duck Duck Go (improves it) and makes it the default.
Then the DOJ sues Apple for anticompetitive behavior.
I’ll sound like a crazy but if it were 9:00AM in the morning, and a politician told me it was 9:00AM in the morning – I wouldn’t believe him/her. You never get what they say they are going to do. There are just too many chefs in the kitchen, each with a different agenda, to get a simple, easy to understand, enforceable law that doesn’t contain fine print that unnecessarily benefits their cronies.
We have one – Elections.
“We the People” have long lamented that our politicians routinely and repeatedly serve their own agendas vs serving their constituents fairly. Then, we reelect em.
As Walt Kelly’s Pogo said back in the 50’s: “We have met the enemy and he is us!”
Pkg 1: Never happen to AAPL. Apple is a pie, integrated as tightly as an iPhone or iPad’s parts. Good luck slicing the others, though Amazon might offer an angle, the legal fight would go on for a decade.
Pkg 2: Like telling the Chevy dealer she’s gotta put Acura’s on the front row? Krispy Kreme rack as you walk into Dunkin’ Donuts? Microbrewery gotta pour the grog brewed down the street too?
Pkg 3: >$1 billion acquisitions already face plenty of scrutiny from regulatory and shareholder angles.
Pkg.4: I’m impressed. We’re back to remembering enforcement costs $$. I’m onboard if we can hire more USDA food inspectors while we’re at it.
Pkg.5: Non-issue. Android is all over this already. iPhone to Android, that’s the tough switch. I switched customers from the HTC models to 4G iPhones at a blistering pace, over the phone. Automated tool has worked for years now. Authorized retailers switch people’s data between devices all day. Major apps are on both platforms.
Fast switching between AT&T to T-Mobile or Verizon or xFinity wireless services using eSIM technology would sure shake up the carriers but that’s not this pkg.