A group of US lawmakers from both parties have asked the US Justice Department to investigate whether Apple violated antitrust laws when it shut down third-party applications that allow Android devices to use the iMessage service to communicate with iPhone users to use. The US news agency Bloomberg reported this on Monday.
Advertisement
According to the report The lawmakers, including Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, wrote that they were “concerned that Apple’s recent actions to disable Beeper Mini will harm competition, deprive consumers of choice, and deprive them of future innovations and… investments in interoperable messaging services.” Klobuchar and Lee are the chairmen of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee. “We also fear that this type of tactic could stifle future investment and innovation by companies seeking to compete with existing digital gatekeepers,” they wrote in the letter addressed to the Justice Department’s top antitrust official, Jonathan Kanter. Kanter comes from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and heads the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice. He is one of the deputy attorney generals in the ministry.
The Department of Justice has been investigating since 2019 whether Apple could fall under monopoly legislation in the USA. At the beginning of the year, the authority intensified its action against Apple.
Cat and mouse game between Apple and Beeper
Recently there was a dispute about Beeper Mini. The app enables iMessage on Android devices. The dispute has now led to the letter and the demand for antitrust investigations against Apple by the US senators. The makers of Beeper Mini reverse engineered and recreated Apple’s messaging protocol. In contrast to other solutions, communication takes place directly with Apple’s servers – while maintaining end-to-end encryption. The developers also managed to link devices to iMessage even without an Apple ID. Apple then prevented Messages from Android devices and blocked beepers.
Apple confirms the action against Beeper Mini: “We have taken steps to protect our users by blocking techniques that exploit fake credentials to gain access to iMessage,” explained Nadine Haida, senior PR manager at Apple, loudly US media.
Senator Amy Klobuchar then criticized the company. Apple is blocking an app “that increases freedom of choice and convenience,” she tweeted. “We must pass bipartisan legislation to stop this anti-competitive abuse.” And the Democratic US Senator Elizabeth Warren also criticized Apple’s actions. Corporate executives “protect their profits by crushing competitors,” she wrote.
Apple has refused to expand its encrypted messaging service iMessage to Android for years. Some critics say this dynamic makes messaging between iPhones and Android phones less secure. Eric Migicovsky, the founder of Beeper, explained to Bloombergthat his company has a “good feeling” about getting around Apple’s restrictions in the future.
And apparently the Beeper developers were able to overcome Apple’s countermeasures and made it possible to communicate via iMessage on Android devices again despite Apple’s blocking. At the same time, they rejected Apple’s accusation that the service poses a risk for users. The app ultimately makes communication between iPhones and Android devices safer, they argue. The last word on the matter may not have been spoken yet. Now the US Department of Justice is asked to comment.
(akn)