Facebook is one of Apple’s biggest competitors and sees itself at a disadvantage. A lawsuit is allegedly in preparation, but is facing headwinds internally.
The public exchange of blows between Facebook and Apple is heading for a major legal battle: Facebook is preparing a broad-based antitrust lawsuit in which the iPhone company is accused of abuse of market power, as reported by The Informations , citing informed persons. Apple’s rules would make it increasingly difficult for other app providers to compete with Apple’s services, according to the thrust of the social network, Facebook is bothered by Apple’s requirements for in-app purchases and the data protection innovations around iOS 14, among other things.
Internal resistance to lawsuit
Facebook has been preparing the lawsuit for several months, and external legal assistance has also been called in, writes The Information . Internally, however, there is resistance: employees would be skeptical because the group is not making a particularly convincing victim in view of its own legal problems and data protection scandals. Accordingly, it remains open whether there will actually be a lawsuit.
Facebook has already announced that it intends to explain in the major legal battle between Epic Games and Apple how Apple’s “unfair guidelines” damage other apps . Facebook has also been trying to build pressure for a long time through public relations and regulatory authorities: Apple used the control of access to iPhone and iPad to “prefer its own services and sources of income and that to the detriment of third parties,” it said in a letter from the social network to the EU Commission last year.
Facebook sees Apple as one of its biggest competitors
The tone is also getting rougher: they see Apple “increasingly as one of the biggest competitors,” said Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg to financial analysts on Wednesday evening. Apple has “every incentive” to use its dominant position to “intervene in the way our and other apps work,” said Zuckerberg. In addition to Apple’s upcoming app tracking transparency, the Facebook boss also sharply criticized the data protection labels in the App Store: They would mainly break down metadata instead of informing about the actual security of a service like WhatsApp – Apple prefers its own messaging service iMessage.
