Dutch antitrust regulator investigating charges of abuse by Apple in its App Store

“Apple is being investigated by a competition regulator in the Netherlands over the dominance of the App Store to determine if Apple has abused its position in the app marketplace, and has put out a call to developers asking for examples of potential abuses,” Malcolm Owen reports for AppleInsider.
“The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets is opening up an investigation into Apple and the possibility of it having abused its position with the App Store. ACM advises it is doing so after receiving indications from ‘other app providers’ during a market study into app stores in general,” Owen reports. “The investigation aims to determine if Apple violated ‘the prohibition of abuse of dominance,’ such as by giving preferential treatment to its own apps over those produced by third-party developers.”
Owen reports, “While the investigation will be focusing on Apple at first, due to the ‘most detailed reports’ received by ACM relate to the App Store, but it has also opened up the possibility for the Google Play Store to receive similar scrutiny if warranted, based on reports provided to ACM by developers.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Any supermakret we’ve ever been in, gives preferential treatment to its own branded products that almost always undercut the pricing of similar products. If customers don’t like Apple’s App Store, they are not forced to continue shopping there, they can choose another smartphone brand.