A group of bipartisan lawmakers asked the Justice Department to probe whether Apple Inc violated antitrust laws when it shut down third-party applications enabling Android devices to use the iMessage service to communicate with iPhone users.
The lawmakers, including Democratic Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar and Republican Utah Senator Mike Lee, wrote they are “concerned that Apple’s recent actions to disable Beeper Mini harm competition, eliminate choices for consumers, and will discourage future innovation and investment in interoperable messaging services”. Klobuchar and Lee are the leaders of the Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee.
“We also fear these types of tactics may more broadly chill future investment and innovation from those that seek to compete with existing digital gatekeepers,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter, which was addressed to the Justice Department’s top antitrust official Jonathan Kanter.
The Justice Department has already been quietly investigating Apple’s App Store practices since 2019.
Beeper Mini, the latest app to enable iMessage on Android devices, stopped working last week. Apple said it was protecting user privacy by shutting down apps that used “fake credentials” to gain access to iMessage.
Apple and the Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Apple for years has declined to expand its encrypted messaging service iMessage to Android. Some critics say the dynamic makes messaging less secure between iPhones and Android phones.
Eric Migicovsky, who founded Beeper, told Bloomberg News in an interview last week that his company is “feeling good” about bypassing Apple’s restrictions in the future.
The letter was also signed by Colorado Republican Representative Ken Buck and New York Democrat Jerrold Nadler. – Bloomberg
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