Facebook is reportedly planning to take its long-running battle with Apple to the courts. The Information reports that Facebook has been working with outside legal counsel to prepare an antitrust lawsuit against Apple alleging that the company “abused its power in the smartphone market by forcing app developers to abide by App Store rules that Apple’s own apps don’t have to follow.”
Facebook closed out 2020 in surprisingly good financial standing, despite navigating what could only be described as a difficult period for a company that makes most of its revenue from advertising. However, the social media firm did warn investors that it faces “significant uncertainty” this year, which is why the company is scrambling to prevent its main stream of revenue from drying up at a time when online commerce is booming and shifts in consumer demand are making advertising more profitable.
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.
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.
In the case of iOS 14’s App Tracking Transparency feature, which is designed to let users opt-out of being tracked across apps, Facebook could focus on proving that it gives Apple a competitive advantage in areas like messaging, shopping, and gaming especially as Apple also requires developers to use its own in-app payment service.
Facebook and Apple have been engaged in a public battle over privacy for years now. Apple has 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.
Meanwhile, Facebook criticized Apple with a full-page ad in US newspapers due to the new App Store guidelines. Just yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg accused Apple of having “incentive to interfere” with
