Apple in the crosshairs of draft antitrust laws that could force big changes

Multiple reports indicate that House Democrats are circulating draft antitrust legislation that could have a big impact on the way companies like Apple do business and the user experience on devices like the iPhone 12 and Apple's App Store.

First noted by Axios, the bills "address interoperability, self-preferencing a company's own services and features, an update to merger fees and more money for the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice, limiting Big Tech acquisitions and separating platforms from sellers."

More details provided by CNBC note that one bill "could raise the fees companies pay to notify the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice Antitrust Division of large mergers with the goal of raising money for those agencies."

A further four are detailed as follows:

• Ending Platform Monopolies Act - This would reportedly "make it unlawful for a platform with at least 500,000 monthly active U.S. users and a market cap over $600 billion to own or operate a business that presents a clear conflict of interest" - the report notes how Apple runs platforms but also compete with some services on those platforms (think Apple Music vs Spotify)
• Platform Competition and Opportunity Act - this would shift the burden of proof to the dominant platform in mergers and acquisitions, with companies like Apple, Facebook, and Google forced to prove their acquisitions are lawful, rather than the government having to prove the opposite.
• Platform Anti-Monopoly Act - This would stop platforms giving preferential treatment to their own products and services over competitors, and would also ban platforms using data collected on their services that isn't available to other competing services
• Augmenting Compatibility and Competition by Enabling Service Switching (ACCESS) Act - this would mandate data portability and interoperability, making it easier to switch from one ecosystem to another, for instance switching from iOS to Android.

As the report notes these are draft laws that could undergo big changes prior to their introduction. It is not clear whether the bills have bipartisan support, but Axios notes these bills "generally reflects ideas committee leaders have discussed in hearings and include areas where Democrats and Republicans on the committee have said they can find agreement."