Apple Lawsuit Pits US Free-Market Goal Against App Security

The Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against Apple aimed at getting the tech giant to reduce entry barriers to its app store is likely to clash with the U.S. goal of preventing apps like TikTok from getting on Americans’ smartphones. 

In the lawsuit, the Justice Department and attorneys general of 15 states and the District of Columbia allege that Apple Inc. violated antitrust laws by using its dominant iPhone platform to freeze out competitors and used its app store clout to keep some apps out and raise prices for consumers.

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said that Apple “selectively restricts access to the points of connection between third-party apps and the iPhone’s operating system, degrading the functionality of non-Apple apps and accessories.” The goal of the lawsuit, Garland said, is not to stop Apple from vetting apps but to ensure that Apple does not engage in “exclusionary” actions that affect competitors.

Just a week earlier, the House overwhelmingly passed legislation that would require Apple and Google to stop allowing TikTok on their app stores unless ByteDance, the Chinese owner of the app, divests it to a company not owned by a foreign adversary. Lawmakers are concerned that TikTok is sending Americans’ data to Chinese authorities. 

The Senate has yet to take up the measure. President Joe Biden has said he would sign the bill if it clears Congress.

The two actions appear to contradict each other in terms of the role that the U.S. government expects app store owners to play, said Daniel Castro, vice president at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a think tank that focuses on innovation policies.

Congress wants “these platforms to be gatekeepers only sometimes, when they want them to potentially block TikTok. But they don’t want them to be gatekeepers when they are doing things to ensure the privacy, security and integrity of their platforms,” Castro said.

“You can’t have it both ways,” he said.