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36 Berkeley Tech. L.J. 353 (2021)
Antitrust in the Consumer Platform Economy: How Apple Has Abused Its Mobile Platform Dominance

handle is hein.journals/berktech36 and id is 377 raw text is: ANTITRUST IN THE CONSUMER PLATFORM ECONOMY: HOW APPLE HAS ABUSED ITS MOBILE PLATFORM DOMINANCE Shili Shaot ABSTRACT Apple's iOS smartphone platform wields de facto monopoly power thanks to its dominant revenue share and Apple's sticky product ecosystem. Apple has abused this power to tie the distribution of digital goods on iOS to its proprietary in-app purchase payment system to impose a 30% tax and extract supracompetitive profits. Moreover, Apple has blocked rivals and favored its own apps using its control of the App Store, distorting competition both on the iOS platform and between smartphone platforms. Courts today are increasingly hostile to lawsuits against dominant firm behavior, however, creating doctrinal obstacles that impede antitrust enforcement against tech platforms such as Apple. This Note makes the antitrust case against Apple and explores why features of consumer tech platforms Apple represents demand a reform of the current antitrust regime. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15779/Z380K26C09 © 2021 Shili Shao. t Yale Law School, J.D. I am immensely grateful to Bapu Kotapati, Simon Mutungi, Melissa Newham,Jeff Schroeder, and Melody Wang for research collaboration and inspiration. I am also indebted to Fiona Scott Morton and Florian Ederer for helpful comments and encouragement, and to Austin Frerick and Yale's Thurman Arnold Project for research support. I further thank Doni Bloomfield, Kenneth Khoo, and George Priest for thoughtful feedback. The views expressed in this Note are solely my own and do not represent the views of any institution with which I have been affiliated.

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