Apple Responds to Concerns Expressed by ACCC

12 MAY 2022 - Apple has answered complaints from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). MacRumors says that organization has been studying aspects of Apple’s ecosystem since last year. According to a report last month regarding both Apple and Google, the ACCC said:

There is a need for consumers to have more choice through an ability to change any preinstalled default app on their device that is not a core phone feature… This would provide consumers with more control to choose the app that best meets their needs, and promote more robust competition in downstream markets for apps.

Surprising no one, Apple disagrees. The company came back with its usual stated concerns around security. Apple says the ACCC should be more mindful of that, rather than “purported competition concerns…” The company says:

…[consumers] want stronger, not weaker, protection - from the unlawful conduct which affects the hundreds of thousands of Australians every year whose information is stolen, scammed, traded and exploited to their detriment.

The piece says Apple also highlighted “confidential data” showing:

…a meaningful, consistent, and upward-trending willingness of users to switch between devices and platforms, and an ongoing capacity for them to do so.

It’s hard to know whether that would satisfy the ACCC though, since the group seems as concerned about Android as it is Apple. Quoting last month’s report:

Apple and Google's dominance in mobile OS, combined with the control exerted over the app marketplaces permitted into their mobile ecosystems, means that the App Store and the Play Store control the key gateways through which app developers can access consumers on mobile devices…

For its part, Apple argues that it works to get a wide range of developers into the App Store. The company also points to web apps as “an alternative means for developers to distribute apps to iOS users.”

You can check out Apple's full response on the website for the ACCC.