Is Antitrust Enough?

"In 1984, Apple aired a Super Bowl ad about smashing Big Brother. Directed by Ridley Scott, the 60-second slot featured rows of gray-uniformed drones marching in lockstep through an industrial corridor, filing into an auditorium before an enormous blue-tinted screen, their faces bathed in a phosphorescent glow as a stern technocrat proclaimed “a garden of pure ideology” free from “contradictory thoughts”-right before a woman hurled a sledgehammer at his pixelated face. The ad's target was unmistakable: IBM, whose blue logo and buttoned-down culture had become synonymous with corporate computing."

"Yet the company was destined to perfect the very anticompetitive practices then under federal assault: tying watches to phones, tablets to computers, storage to its cloud, apps to its store-creating an all-encompassing orbit few users escape. Today, the Justice Department wields a similar sledgehammer against Apple. In March 2024, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland accused the company of using its monopoly power to degrade competitors' products and lock consumers into its ecosystem."

"When a reporter questioned Apple's Tim Cook about the quality of iPhone-to-Android video messaging, the CEO responded with a monopolist's candor: “Buy your mom an iPhone.” But Apple isn't alone in the cross"

Platform capitalism concentrates power through ecosystem design, tying products and services together to reduce user choice and competitor access. Apple’s early antitrust-era messaging contrasted with later practices that integrated devices, software, storage, and apps into a tightly controlled orbit. Federal antitrust enforcement has shifted from breaking classic monopolies like AT&T toward targeting modern conduct that degrades rivals and locks consumers into dominant platforms. Recent allegations claim Apple used monopoly power to disadvantage competitors’ products and steer consumers toward its own ecosystem. The response from Apple leadership reflects a view that consumers should switch to the dominant product rather than expect interoperability or equal access.

Read at The Nation