Apple to face antitrust inquiry?

Jake Widman
Tuesday, 04 May 2010 11:49

IT Policy - Regulation

Two U.S. government agencies are reportedly considering an inquiry into antitrust issues raised by Apple's recent decision to restrict the tools iPhone and iPad developers can use.

 

The scrutiny stems from Apple's recent rewrite of its iPhone developer license. The company revised its description of acceptable developer tools to specify "Objective-C, C, C++ or JavaScript."

The move was widely regarded as a pre-emptive strike against Adobe, which was about to release of version of its Creative Suite software, CS5, that would enable developers to use Flash to create iPhone/iPad apps.

Two weeks later, Adobe announced that the feature would still be in CS5 but would not be supported going forward. (CS5 has just been released.)

Now, according to the New York Post, the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commissions are trying to figure out which one of the two agencies will look into the antitrust implications of Apple's decision.

An inquiry, which could be announced within a few days, is the first step toward an actual investigation and may not result in any action taken against Apple. But being mentioned in the same sentence as "antitrust" won't help the company's image, already suffering from accusations of high-handed behavior.

Neither of the agencies nor Apple would comment on the Post's story.