Colombia joins the list of countries probing Apple over App Store antitrust concerns

From the United States to the United Kingdom, from Brazil to Japan, and in many countries in between, Apple has been facing a series of antitrust probes, particularly over its App Store rules. Now, Colombia is also joining in. Here are the details.

Last year, Colombia’s Office for Competition Protection launched a probe into Apple’s App Store rules. In its preliminary conclusion, it said that Apple had “employed abusive strategies that were contrary to free commerce.”

Now, as reported by Mobile Time (via MacMagazine), Colombia’s Superintendency of Industry and Commerce has formally announced an investigation that may require Apple to change some of its App Store rules in the country.

Familiar concerns, familiar conclusions

The preliminary probe found Apple in violation of a 1992 decree concerning the obstruction of third parties’ access to markets and/or distribution channels.

Colombia’s Office for Competition Protection concluded that Apple had “restricted the access of new participants in the digital application distribution market” by prohibiting alternatives to its App Store, and said

“This conduct was intended to exclude potential competitors and preserve Apple’s monopolistic position in the digital goods distribution market for the iOS and iPadOS operating systems. As a result, anyone wishing to sell or buy within this ecosystem could only do so through Apple’s App Store.”

The organ also concluded that Apple had “obstructed the access of iOS and iPadOS app developers to commercial channels” by prohibiting alternative payment methods:

“In practice, this restriction meant that developers could not provide their users with alternative payment methods for purchasing digital services and subscriptions within their applications, which allowed Apple to take advantage of this limitation to increase its profits.”

In its conclusion, the organ argued that Apple’s conduct had:

1. Created artificial barriers that hindered the entry and permanence of new developers in the iOS and iPadOS ecosystem;
2. Presented unjustified additional costs in the services and subscriptions offered through native applications within that ecosystem;
3. Degraded the user experience by limiting service functionalities, payment options, and access to relevant information.

Now, the country’s Superintendency of Industry and Commerce has picked up the investigation, but has not offered much detail about the next steps. Instead, it merely reaffirmed its commitment to free competition, to the market, and to consumers.

So while the timeline for the next steps may not be clear, 9to5Mac readers can probably guess what may come next.

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