CCI launched an antitrust investigation against Apple’s App Store

The Indian Competition Commission (CCI) ordered a thorough antitrust inquiry into Apple's App Store business practises on Friday.
The ruling comes at a time when the Indian regulator is fighting Google over Play Store restrictions that might harm third-party app developers and the ecosystem as a whole.

"The developer rules and agreement prevent app developers from selling such services, therefore third-party app shops are not authorised to be featured on Apple's App Store… Apple's regulations effectively shut off the market for iOS app stores for potential app distributors "The order was 20 pages long.

"This appears to result in the potential app distributors/app store developers being denied market access, which is in breach of competition standards."

The European Union and the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had also launched antitrust probes into Apple's app store rules.

The CCI has informed the Karnataka High Court that no precipitative action would be taken in the Google Play Store probe.

In the midst of the escalating discussion over its Play Store restrictions, Google filed a brief in the top court this week, requesting additional time to respond to the CCI's anti-trust inquiry. (IANS/PR)

(Keywords: US Federal Trade Commission, Apple, CCI, Indian Competition Commission)