(Bloomberg) – Microsoft Corp. President Brad Smith has expressed concern to US lawmakers about what the company regards as Apple Inc.’s anti-competitive behavior around its app store, according to a person familiar with the matter. .
Smith, who is also the legal director, was invited by the House of Representatives antitrust subcommittee to share his experiences about Microsoft’s own antitrust battle with the United States government in the late 1990s. During the conversation, he had Instead weeks ago, he spoke about the company’s problem with Apple, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the discussion was private.
The Chamber’s Judicial Branch Antitrust Subcommittee will hold a hearing with CEOs of Apple, Amazon.com Inc., Facebook Inc. and Google’s parent Alphabet Inc. on July 27. A Microsoft spokesman declined to comment Monday.
Smith said last month regulators should examine the rules of the app store, which he rated as a much higher barrier to fair competition than Microsoft’s Windows operating software when it was found guilty of antitrust violations 20 years ago. While Smith did not name Apple in that public interview, a Microsoft spokesman later said the executive was referring to the iPhone maker.
His comments came days after European antitrust regulators opened an investigation into Apple’s policies, saying that developers may be unfairly forced to provide a share of app store revenue to the company.
The Information previously reported on the meeting with the subcommittee.
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