The battle against tech monopolies

The outcome of the antitrust lawsuit against Apple will have significant impact on various markets, including India

The US government filed a landmark antitrust lawsuit against Apple last week. The department of justice (DOJ) accused Apple of abusing its dominance by “building a moat around its smartphone monopoly”, listing out in an 88-page complaint how the company allegedly makes it difficult for competing products to exist on its popular iPhones, the high fees it charges developers and the technical barriers that downgrade the quality of communications between Apple and non-Apple devices. These practices ripple through the industries of financial services, gaming, fitness, social media, news media, entertainment and more, the complaint added, warning that unless Apple is stopped, it will “likely entrench its iPhone monopoly to other markets and parts of the economy”.

This photo combo of images shows logos for Apple, Meta, Google and Amazon. (AP Photo) (AP)

It is not merely for the breadth of allegations that the lawsuit is notable. Apple is among the symbols of American dominance in technology. Silicon Valley behemoths like it, and Meta, Google, Amazon and Microsoft, have reshaped the world, its economy, culture and society. Today, there is virtually no facet of life untouched by a product of any of these Big Five tech companies. Together, they are worth over $10.5 trillion -- more than three times the size of India’s economy. Behind this dominance is indeed innovation that has pushed the envelope of modern computing, bringing to the world unforeseen capabilities and efficiencies.

But that is only a part of the story. Examples of investigations and fines against these companies in recent years have shown the dominance is owed in large part to calculated decisions that strike at the heart of free market principles. For instance, Google has been fined billions of dollars for unfair dominance of its Search business, Android mobile operating system policies, and the ads platform that underpins the digital economy. Amazon has been accused of running an unfair digital marketplace – easily the world’s largest – and Meta (Facebook) has been investigated for buying out competitors. Microsoft was taken to the cleaners for its antitrust practices before the turn of the millennium, a case the DOJ in fact cited in its new complaint against Apple. In 1998 and early 2000s, the company was seen to have abused its dominance in personal computing and was ordered to open up its products to competitors. The outcome of the suit against Apple will be keenly watched in India, where protections are a must not just for consumers but industries too, so that the world’s largest population has access to a level playing field