Apple Wants China to Reverse Antitrust Ruling It Already Won

Apple scored a victory when China ruled in its favor in an antitrust case involving its App Store, but the company now fears the victory could backfire.

In May 2024, the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court sided with Apple in a case alleging that the App Store’s 30% commission was unfair, finding that the fees were not “significantly higher” than those in Android’s app stores.

However, according to BloombergApple has taken the highly unusual step of asking to change the court’s written ruling. The company has asked the country’s Supreme Court to remove certain references in the text.

Specifically, he wants the court to remove all references to Apple’s “dominant position.” There’s also a phrase that says “unfair pricing can hurt consumers,” and he wants that removed as well.

At stake is the possibility of future lawsuits citing the ruling as precedent. Apple clearly wants to avoid that case by effectively establishing that it has a larger market share than its rivals.

Its market size, and therefore its dominance, is widely considered in every antitrust case that Apple faces. In the US, Senator Warren has called its approximately 50% share of the smartphone market a monopoly.

Similarly, though less nonsensically, Margrethe Vestager of the European Union described Apple as the dominant player in the high-end devices market.

“I think what we’re seeing is that there are actually very different and very distinct markets when it comes to smartphones,” she said, “and (a) very expensive, high-end phone is not in the same market as a very, you know, inexpensive, lower-end phone.”