Biden urges the Competition Board to get an update on efforts to boost competition and lower prices.
WASHINGTON - The US government and US regulators have stepped up their campaign against Google and Apple for operating mobile app stores, which they say stifle competition.
That finding was included in a report released by the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTAI) on Wednesday, after President Joe Biden urged the Competition Board to get an update on efforts to boost competition and lower prices.
The report "identifies where you will need legislation to address some of these issues," NTI official Alan Davidson told a news conference.
The report notes that the current App Store model dominated by Google, Apple and Cupertino "harms consumers and developers" by inflating prices and reducing collaboration. He asserts that companies have stifling control over the market that eliminates competition.
"The policies that Apple and Google have put in place in their mobile app stores have created unnecessary barriers and costs for app developers, ranging from access fees to functional limitations that favor some apps over others," the report's authors wrote.
They also stated that "new legislation and additional antitrust enforcement measures are likely necessary" to enhance competition in the app ecosystem.
And in an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal last month, Biden called on Democrats and Republicans to rein in big tech companies without mentioning Apple or Google by name.
He said at the time, "When technology platforms become large enough, many find ways to promote their products while excluding or weakening competitors, or charging competitors a fortune to sell on their platform."
"My vision for our economy is a vision in which everyone, including small and medium-sized companies, small shops and entrepreneurs, can compete on equal terms with the largest companies," he added.
A legal battle over App Store dominance is already under way in the courts. Apple has championed the area around the iPhone App Store, known as the "walled garden", as an indispensable feature appreciated by consumers who want the best protection available for their personal information.
Biden called on Democrats and Republicans to rein in big tech companies without mentioning Apple or Google by name
Apple officials say the company faces significant competition from various video game alternatives on its iPhones.
Two years ago, Apple preempted any judicial decisions against it regarding breaching the principle of competition in the US market by easing some restrictions on developers using its platforms through its store services, which gives the advantage of not paying any money for these services.
Analysts do not expect any measures at all to threaten Apple's economic model, as the Apple Store reaps an average annual revenue of about seventy billion dollars.
The matter is not much different for Google, which has suffered in recent years from huge fines, not only in the US market, but also in Europe, India and other markets, due to monopoly.
The company, which generated about $47 billion in revenue in 2021 from its app store, has always defended itself before the courts.
The European Union's antitrust enforcement tool has imposed a total of €8.25 billion in antitrust fines on the world's most popular internet search engine in three investigations spanning more than a decade.
And last September, a study by the American research platform Counter Point Richers showed that the rates of smartphone use in the United States increased in an unprecedented way.
Business Insider stated at the time that the research study revealed that the number of iPhone users that rely on the iOS operating system in the United States exceeded the number of smartphone users that rely on the Android operating system for the first time ever.