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Comment by ubernostrum | Hacker News Reader

Microsoft got hit for using their monopoly in one market (the market for operating systems) illegally to try to obtain better/monopoly status in another market (the market for web browsers.

If you have an evidence-based argument to make that Apple has a monopoly in the market for mobile operating systems and has illegally used it to try to obtain a monopoly in the market for web browsers, I would be intrigued to hear it.

(in other words, not every bundled web browser is automatically a violation of antitrust law; nor is every attempt to forbid something on iOS automatically a violation)

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In other words, you are giving an excuse to Apple, based on the current handicapped anti-trust practice by the courts.

I don't see it as a valid excuse. Apple are clearly damaging the industry and market with their behavior. By blocking major features in their browser and banning all other browsers, they are forcing others into supporting their specific requirements, because otherwise they won't be able to reach iOS users. Examples like trying to sabotage DASH for video streaming by not supporting MSE on iOS are quite obvious.

Anti-trust was intended to prevent such kind of outcomes. But it was diluted to the point of being practically useless, allowing the likes of Apple to run amok with their monopolistic garbage.

Your argument is based on what you personally think the law should be, and that's not the same as what the law is.

Microsoft did things that actually broke the law. Nobody's yet convinced a court that Apple has done things that broke the law. And Apple is demonstrably not doing the thing Microsoft got in trouble for.

So you're free to argue that in your ideal world, if you made all the laws, Apple would be put out of business. But you're not free to argue that that's what the actual laws in the real world say to do.

So you are saying "since the law is full of holes, don't blame Apple for being crooks". I disagree. Whitewashing monopolistic abuse based on how neutered by years of lobbying by monopolists anti-trust laws are, is quite bad in itself.

> in your ideal world, if you made all the laws, Apple would be put out of business.

In the ideal world with functional anti-trust, they'd be held accountable for their disgusting anti-competitive behavior and they'd fix it. In the current world their monopolistic abuse runs unchecked, causing damage to the industry and progress.

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