Unionization….
Regulators going after Apple Computer’s propriety thing hanging on ‘privacy’…….
Global experts and leaders of competition policy convened at the Data, Technology, and Analytics Conference 2022 last week, hosted by the UK’s Competition and Market Authority (CMA). The CMA’s event came just weeks after it published its year-long study into Apple and Google’s mobile ecosystems, which found that Apple and Google have an “effective duopoly” on mobile ecosystems that allows them to “exercise a stranglehold over these markets,” including on operating systems, app stores, and web browsers.
“Without interventions,” the press release claims, “both companies are likely to maintain, and even strengthen, their grip over the sector, further restricting competition and limiting incentives for innovators.” The regulator subsequently sought to launch a wide-reaching “market investigation reference” into restrictions on mobile browser engines and cloud gaming on Apple’s platforms.
Apple was represented at the conference by Chief Privacy Officer Jane Horvath, who discussed the importance of privacy in the context of competition and how privacy is a “cross-functional pursuit” at the company. She discussed examples of how privacy was a vital consideration when developing the Health app and the Apple Watch years before they debuted, as well as the journey toward App Tracking Transparency. Horvath also responded to the argument that Apple’s privacy efforts may conveniently protect the position of a powerful incumbent….
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Apple’s ecosystem is increasingly coming under intense scrutiny by governments around the world, including in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, the European Union, and more, with a clear appetite from global regulators to explore requirements around issues like app store policies, app sideloading, and interoperability amid concerns about competition….
Unionization…..
Apple Store employees in Maryland have made history by voting to officially unionize, becoming the first Apple retail location to do so in the U.S. after efforts by Apple to calm down unionization efforts.
As reported by CNBC, employees at the Apple Store in Towson, Maryland voted 65 for and 33 against a call to join the Machinists Union. 110 employees were eligible to vote Wednesday through Saturday evening. The employees are hopeful the new move will encourage Apple to provide better pay and working condition, both of which the company has already pledged to do.
As noted by CNBC, the National Labor Relations Board still needs to verify the votes before Apple must begin negotiations with the union.
In a video shared in May, Apple’s head of retail and people, Deirdre O’Brien, said that employees have a “right to join a union” but added that it’s also employees right to “not join a union.” “We have a relationship that is based on an open and collaborative and direct engagement, which I feel could fundamentally change if a store is represented by a union under a collective bargaining agreement,” O’Brien added….
image….An Apple store in Sydney. (Brent Lewin/Bloomberg)