What you need to know
- Facebook is planning to sue Apple.
- A new report says it will file an antitrust suit over alleged anti-competitive practices such as the use of Apple's in-app payment system.
A new report says that Facebook is planning to file an antitrust lawsuit against Facebook over anticompetitive practices such as in-app purchases.
According to The Information (opens in new tab):
A long-simmering public dispute between Facebook and Apple has neared a boiling point.With the aid of outside legal counsel, Facebook for months has been preparing an antitrust lawsuit against Apple that would allege the iPhone-maker abused its power in the smartphone market by forcing app developers to abide by App Store rules that Apple's own apps don't have to follow, according to two people with direct knowledge of Facebook's efforts.
According to the paywalled report, Facebook may decide not to sue Apple, and that its executives are facing internal resistance from employees over a very recent and public spat with Apple. Apple and Facebook have publicly fallen out over planned changes to iOS 15 that means users will have to opt-in to tracking measures that underpin personalized advertising services used by the likes of Facebook and the many businesses that operate on its platform.
The report says Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is "attempting to build a broad legal case" arguing that Apple's rules for app developers make it harder to compete against Apple in spheres like gaming, messaging, and shopping. Furthermore, it is suggested the measures are unfair Apple's own apps down necessarily have to follow these rules.
A new press release from Apple today has confirmed that planned iOS 14 changes will come with the next beta update of the software and be rolled out more generally in early spring.
