Facebook accused Apple of anticompetitive behavior, in a document filed with the EU this week, AppleInsider reported. CEO Mark Zuckerberg expressed a similar view in a recent interview.
The document, provided by the EU’s competition watchdog, asks businesses if they have been subjected to anticompetitive behavior on large online platforms. Facebook took the opportunity to highlight its grievances with Apple. The complaints were lodged in two areas: Facebook Gaming and Apple’s upcoming plan to require a user’s consent before a company could place ad trackers on their device. Facebook alleges that the Facebook Gaming app has been “affected by unfair contractual terms and unfair practices imposed by Apple with respect to the App Store and on iOS more broadly.” Facebook Gaming was rolled out to iOS users in August after restructuring the app to comply with the App Store terms and conditions. Facebook was required to remove gameplay functionality as Apple does not allow third-party gaming platforms.
Check It Out: Facebook EU Antitrust Filing Accuses Apple of Anticompetitive Behavior
“Apple’s upcoming plan to require a user’s consent before a company could place ad trackers on their device.”
Trying to envision what manner of logical contortions, backflips, and cartwheels were needed to pass this off as “anticompetitive behavior”. Maybe the Zuckminions leafed through an introductory economics text and zeroed in on the perfect information assumption for perfectly competitive markets (which like an ideal gas is a theoretical concept that doesn’t exist in the real world).