Monday, August 29, 2022 1:14 pm9 Comments

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According to a report from Politico, the U.S. Justice Department is preparing to file a sweeping antitrust complaint against Apple, however Evercore ISI analyst Amit Daryanani believes that Apple remains the least at risk from regulatory changes among the “Big Tech” companies.

Sabrina Escobar for Barron’s:

While the lawsuit would be a “headline risk” that could affect the stock price, investors shouldn’t be too worried, wrote Daryanani. “We think Apple is well positioned to win any potential lawsuit related to the App Store,” he said.

The risks regarding hardware are also relatively small, Daryanani added. Politico reported that the DOJ suit could center around Apple’s dispute with Tile, a tracking-device company whose signature tracking hardware competes against Apple’s AirTags. If the suit does pivot to focusing on Tile’s claims, that would be a positive for Apple, as changes to AirTags would be “relatively immaterial” to the company’s bottom line, Daryanani said.

A DOJ suit focused on App Store practices would be more significant, Daryanani wrote. He said an antitrust suit probably wouldn’t be filed until later this year, once the appeals of the Epic lawsuit have been resolved.

MacDailyNews Take: Again:

If the market is smartphones, Apple does not have a monopoly in smartphones. If you don’t like Apple’s iPhone, buy another phone.

If the market is smartphone operating systems, Apple does not have a monopoly in smartphone operating systems. If you don’t like Apple’s iOS, buy an Android phone.

If the market is App Stores, Apple does not have a monopoly in App Stores. If you don’t like Apple’s App Store, use an Android app store like Google Play.

No monopoly in any case means that antitrust law, when properly adjudicated, does not apply.

I don’t think anybody reasonable is going to come to the conclusion that Apple is a monopoly. Our share is much more modest. We don’t have a dominant position in any market… We are not a monopoly. — Apple CEO Tim Cook, June 2019

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