Tile accused Apple of acting anti-competitively at a House antitrust hearing on Friday, while Sonos testified against Google, and PopSockets against Amazon
The Boulder field hearing is the second act in the House's antitrust inquiry into the big four platforms, following the July 2019 hearing where Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook executives defended their market dominance in Washington. This time the committee went to the dependent companies' home turf and put the alleged victims on the stand instead.
The witness list is deliberate: Tile against Apple, Sonos against Google, PopSockets against Amazon — one hardware or accessory maker per platform, each arguing the gatekeeper competes with its own suppliers. The format turned scattered grievances into a single public record that later proceedings would draw on, including Tile's pre-testimony concerns over AirTag and Find My integration ahead of the 2021 app-store hearings.
First-order effects
Apple, Google, and Amazon now have their own business partners formally accusing them of anti-competitive conduct on the congressional record, with each accusation tied to a specific product relationship (Find My, smart-home software, marketplace rules).
Tile, Sonos, and PopSockets gain leverage they could not get bilaterally: their complaints are now documented evidence in an active investigation rather than private disputes with companies they depend on.
Second-order effects
The hearing model — pairing each platform with a supplier-turned-rival — sets up the follow-on sessions, including the Senate Judiciary subcommittee's app-store examination where Tile testified again alongside Apple and Google.
Platforms facing these accusations must defend the same conduct across multiple venues, as seen when Amazon and Google later defended their smart-home businesses at a Senate antitrust hearing.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, accessory and device makers become standing witnesses in platform antitrust proceedings, shifting the evidentiary base from market-share statistics to first-person accounts of gatekeeper dependence.
Serial bipartisan hearings build the factual record that any eventual legislation or enforcement against self-preferencing by platform owners would rest on, regardless of which party controls the committee.
The trend: Congress is institutionalizing platform-antitrust oversight through a cadence of hearings that use dependent hardware and accessory makers as recurring witnesses against the gatekeepers they supply.
The Find My app cannot be deleted from iOS, but Tile can, says Daru. Find My's settings are enabled by one switch during installation, but Tile's are buried, and iOS 13 reminds users to turn it off. Tile is also not allowed to use the new UWB radios in the iPhone 11.
Honored to be invited to testify in front of the House Antitrust Subcommittee on Big Tech's tightening monopoly grip on the internet. It's a public hearing at the University of Colorado Law School in Boulder on Friday, Jan 10 at 10am. Bring your 🍿😄🤘 https://twitter.com/...
Timestamp it: Google, Amazon, and/or Facebook will be the targets of antitrust lawsuits from the U.S. government irrespective of whom wins the 2020 election. https://www.reuters.com/...
“Apple is acting as a gatekeeper to applications and technologies in a way that favors its own interests,” says Daru. “You might be the best soccer team, but you're playing against a team that owns the stadium, the ball, and the league, and can change the rules when it wants.”
@dhh Next, Kirsten Daru, vp and general counsel of Tile. “Last april reports came out that Apple would be coming out with a competing device... shortly thereafter they told us we wouldn't be in their stores anymore.”
@dhh Now @dhh is going in on Apple and the App Store. “Every application maker using the App Store lives in fear that their application is denied.... all it takes is being assigned the wrong clerk... then you'll be stuck in an appeals process that would make Kafka blush.”
@Patrick_Spence Next, @dhh to talk about Google. “Their monopoly on internet search is near total, and their bribes to companies like Apple ensures no competition will emerge.”
@Patrick_Spence Spence wants to focus on three trends: - Big tech cos using power in one market to crush other markets, using voice assistants and smart speakers as an example - Dominant companies exploiting partners to tilt playing field to their own products - Bigcos disregardi…
This will come to light on Friday in Boulder, the latest in a series of hearings convened by lawmakers on the House's top antitrust panel. It is sure to influence their probe into the state of fed competition laws — and perhaps inform open investigations as well https://twitter.c…
NEWS: PopSockets, Tile, Sonos and Basecamp will ask Congress to help stop Big Tech bullying at a hearing today in Boulder. I spoke with the execs — and the cmte's chairman — ahead of the hearing to learn more about their calls to rein in tech giants https://www.washingtonpost.com…
NEWS: PopSockets says Amazon cost them millions. Tile says Apple iOS changes gave its tool a disadvantage. Sonos and Basecamp say Google acts like a monopoly. All four will testify at a congressional hearing today in Boulder, Colo., and I spoke w/the execs https://www.washingtonp…
SCOOP: PopSockets says it lost millions due to row with Amazon. Tile is still warring with Apple after it unveiled competing tool. Basecamp and Sonos say Google is killing innovation. I spoke with each company ahead of their testimony to Congress https://www.washingtonpost.com/ .…