Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox (2017)

One nuance I'm not clear on is power gained through the monopoly ownership of a proprietary technology. So for example Apple was able to exert considerable influence over AT&T and later get unprecedented concessions from carriers in order for them to support the iPhone. Arguably their power over the App Store gives them similar leverage. But is that anti-competitive if it simply flows from the superiority of their proprietary software? Arguably no, it's entirely fair enough. They are not using dominance of the market, but legitimately exploiting their ownership of their platform. But couldn't Microsoft have used the same argument for Windows?

I'm genuinely conflicted on this. Simply gaining advantage by being 'better' can't be enough to be illegal surely? That would create truly bizarre and user-hostile incentives. However when you gain a monopoly position and then exert that power, it becomes anti-competitive. How do we tell when a company crosses the threshold? Nobody in 1997-2010 could argue Apple had monopoly power in the phone market and it had almost exactly the same policies back then. Now maybe it does hold some form of monopoly or at least market dominating power, but applies basically the same policies, so is that now illegal? Maybe policies appropriate for a smaller player can be inappropriate beyond a certain scale.

That might be true, I'm willing to accept that. As a customer in 1998 I chose to by an iPhone and accepted Apple's controls over the platform as beneficial, but a new purchaser now might feel compelled to do so due to Apple's dominance of the App ecosystem and resent the locked down nature of the system. That person might legitimately cry foul and maybe have an honest grievance. How does that work? How are Apple supposed to know that their existing, standing policies have now become a violation of the law where previously they were not? It genuinely perplexes me.