Facebook is planning to take its long-standing battle with Apple to the courts. The information reports that Facebook has been working with outside legal counsel to prepare an antitrust lawsuit against Apple, claiming that the company “has abused its power in the smartphone market by forcing app developers to obey the App Store rules that the apps themselves Apple need not follow. “
Citing people familiar with the matter, the report explains that the Facebook process is likely to focus in part on the changes that Apple introduced in iOS 14. This includes the App Tracking Transparency feature, which will be released in the coming months and requires users to authorize the applications track them.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is trying to build a broad legal case by arguing that Apple’s rules for app developers – which force them to use the payment service in the Apple app, for example – make it harder to compete with Apple. in areas like gaming, messaging and shopping
Facebook’s own process, if it comes to fruition, should focus in part on the most recent major update that Apple made to its mobile operating system, iOS 14, which it launched in September, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The report warns, however, that Facebook may not end up filing antitrust lawsuits against Apple. In fact, Facebook executives are said to be “facing internal resistance” from employees over their readiness against Apple.
Internally, however, Facebook officials expressed skepticism about waging a high-profile battle against Apple, according to four people familiar with the matter. Some employees are concerned that Facebook is not a convincing victim, due to the company’s own legal problems and the incorrect use of user data in the past.
However, it shouldn’t necessarily be surprising to see Facebook at least considering the possibility of taking Apple to court. Last month, the company offered to help Epic Games in its battle against Apple by providing internal documents.
Facebook and Apple have been engaged in a public battle for privacy for years. Apple criticized Facebook for collecting “as much data from users as possible” and launched its privacy-focused features as a way to “defend our users” against companies like Facebook.
Meanwhile, Facebook criticized Apple with a full-page ad in American newspapers due to the new App Store guidelines. Just yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg accused Apple of having an “incentive to interfere” on Facebook for competitive reasons.
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