According to a report posted yesterday, Facebook might be looking to file an antitrust lawsuit against Apple, arguing its case on the merits that Apple has abused its power via App Store rules.
Recently, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that Apple’s new privacy changes are anti-competitive and self-serving. The battle of words has been going on since late last year when Apple announced its renewed privacy settings.
Reports suggest that Facebook is taking steps to file an antitrust lawsuit against Apple
The report was posted by The Information in which it was explained that Facebook’s lawsuit is most likely to focus in part on the changes Apple introduced in iOS 14. This includes the App Tracking Transparency feature, which will require users to allow apps to track them and it will be launching in the coming months.
The legal preparations by the Facebook signal that the feud between the companies could further escalate, though ultimately Facebook may decide not to file a suit. Its executives are facing internal resistance from some employees over its public campaign against Apple, a fight that recently has centered on a change to iPhone software that will make it harder for Facebook and its advertisers to track people across apps. Now Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is attempting to build a broad legal case arguing that Apple’s rules for app developers—which force them to use Apple’s in-app payment service, for instance—make it harder to compete against Apple in areas such as gaming, messaging and shopping.
The report also states that Facebook may not file the antitrust lawsuit against the Cupertino tech giant. It is said that Facebook executives are ‘facing internal resistance’ from employees about firing the guns at Apple.
Facebook’s own lawsuit, if it materializes, is expected to focus in part on the most recent major update Apple made to its mobile operating system, iOS 14, which it rolled out in September, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
Internally, however, Facebook employees have expressed skepticism over waging a high-profile battle against Apple, according to four people familiar with the matter. Some employees are concerned that Facebook is not a compelling victim, given the company’s own legal issues and past mishandling of user data.
According to Apple, if a developer does not abide by the company’s new privacy rules then they will be risking their app being removed or suspended from the App Store. The same rules will be implemented on Apple’s own apps.
Apple has also criticized Facebook for collecting ‘as much data as possible from users’ and pitched its privacy-focused features as a way for it to ‘stand up for our users’ against companies like Facebook.
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