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APPLE lost its challenge at Germany’s top civil court yesterday against its classification as a significant market power, a label which gives antitrust regulators more scope and flexibility to scrutinise its business practices.
Judges at the Federal Court of Justice backed the German cartel office’s 2023 designation of Apple as a “company of paramount cross-market significance for competition”.
With that, Apple joins Google parent Alphabet and Facebook owner Meta on Germany’s growing list of tech giants subject to possible measures curbing their dominance.
Regulators worldwide have in recent years cracked down on Big Tech in an effort to open up markets to rival start-ups and give consumers more choice. The European Commission’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) which became law in 2023 is seen as the benchmark.
Apple said it faced tough competition in Germany and that it disagreed with the court’s decision.
“It neglects the value of a business model that places the privacy and security of users at its centre,” a spokesperson for the company said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
While the court ruling is a win for the German antitrust watchdog, the crackdown by powerful EU regulators is more of a threat to Big Tech, said Assimakis Komninos, a partner at White & Case.
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