Apple and Google’s app-store management sparks US lawsuits, Asian regulatory pushback
09 October 2020 00:00
Duration: 23:13
You don’t have to be a gamer to know that the company behind Fortnite, Epic Games, has picked a fight with two powerful Silicon Valley giants: Apple and Google. The makers of the popular online game argue that Apple’s restrictions preventing other forms of app distribution from being available to Apple users amount to the company exercising — and abusing — its monopoly power. The legal challenge in the US is just the latest example of antitrust concerns surrounding how both Apple and Google manage their app stores. In South Korea, concerns focusing on Google’s plans to restrict on-line payments through its Android store to just one payment method — its own — has attracted the attention of regulators and government. It has also seen some outspoken lawmakers vowing to take whatever measures are required to bring the platforms to heel.
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Editorial Team
James Panichi Senior Editor, Asia Pacific
James, an Australian journalist with over 25 years’ experience in print and electronic media, helps to oversee MLex’s coverage of regulatory risk in Asia, with special attention to Australia and New Zealand. In 2016, James was appointed as MLex’s managing editor for continental Europe, overseeing the Brussels bureau’s coverage of EU regulatory affairs and managing a team of 16 journalists in Brussels and Geneva. Previously James worked for the European Voice newspaper, before joining the... Read more
Wooyoung Lee Correspondent, Seoul
Wooyoung Lee is a correspondent based in MLex’s Seoul office, South Korea, covering antitrust, privacy and data security, mergers and acquisitions and financial services. Wooyoung has more than a decade of experience in journalism, public policy and research. She has worked and written for news outlets including The Korea Herald, Al Jazeera International, Bloomberg BNA, Monocle, among others.She worked as a foreign service officers for policy and research at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of... Read more