Mexican antitrust authority referred complainant over Google's and Apple's abusive app tax to telecommunications regulator: invitation accepted

Apple and Google ("Goopple") are presently facing formal complaints and/or investigations/litigations over their app tax on five continents--and a sixth one (South America) may soon have to be added to this list:

1. North America

   • [United States] Epic Games v. Apple (the appellate hearing will be held on October 21, and the district court's judgment is flawed enough to warrant at least a partial reversal and remand), Société du Figaro et al. v. Apple (recently reassigned to Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, the Epic and Pepper judge), Epic Games v. Google, Match Group v. Google

   • [United States] Consumer class actions like Pepper v. Apple, Carr v. Google

   • potentially United States v. Apple

2. Europe

   • [EU] European Commission investigation of Spotify's complaint against Apple

   • [EU] preliminary European Commission investigation of Google Play tax

   • [United Kingdom] Consumer class actions Dr. Rachael Kent v Apple Inc. and Apple Distribution International Ltd, Elizabeth Helen Coll v [Google parent] Alphabet Inc. and Others

   • [The Netherlands] Consumer class actions like the App Stores Claims Foundations' cases against Apple and Google and the Consumer Competition Claims Foundation's case against Apple

   • [Portugal] class actions against Apple and Google

3. Asia

   • [South Korea] Korea Communications Commission investigations of Apple's and Google's app tax in light of last year's legislative amendment, mobile game developers' antitrust complaint against Apple

   • [Japan] antitrust investigation

4. Australia

   • consumer class actions against Apple and Google

5. Africa

   • [South Africa] market inquiry into mobile app stores

While I'm still waiting for the first South American complaint or investigation, there is at least a Latin American complaint now. Geographically, Mexico is a North American country, but it's also a Latin American nation. On Twitter, Mony de Swaan Addati--the former head of Mexico's telecommunications regulator--announced a complaint against Google and Apple that he filed with the Instituto Federal de Telecomunicaciones (Federal Telecommunications Institute), the successor to the government agency he once ran (then named Federal Telecommunications Commission, or Cofetel):

Como informa @Reforma, ayer presenté una denuncia contra Google y Apple ante el @IFT_MX. La misma involucra a sus tiendas de aplicaciones (app stores) y, concretamente, a las políticas que rigen las compras realizadas dentro de las aplicaciones (in-app). https://t.co/a9TACWfmJO

— Mony de Swaan (señor/ñor/Sue) (@Mony_de_Swaan) September 9, 2022

I've read Mr. de Swaan's Twitter thread, and interestingly he notes that he originally filed an antitrust complaint with Cofece, Mexico's primary competition watchdog--but the antitrust authority then told him that mobile app stores are part of the value chain that its sister agency IFT is responsible for. Therefore, Mr. de Swaan filed a complaint with what is essentially his own former agency.

This is the first Latin American app store complaint to have surfaced. I wish Mr. de Swaan luck and will keep an eye on how things go there. His Twitter thread reflects a deep understanding of the issues in a global context.

App developers and/or consumers should also take action further down south. There are some interesting jurisdictions in South America. In Colombia, Apple can't sell the brand new iPhone 14 while Ericsson is enforcing a patent injunction. In Brazil, the Microsoft-ActivisionBlizzard merger review is more transparent than in any other jurisdiction.

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