The Argentine multinational MercadoLibre reported on Monday that it denounced Apple before the authorities of Brazil and Mexico for “various practices prohibited in competition laws” from both countries.
The e-commerce company said in a note that Apple “abuses its monopoly on the distribution of applications for devices with the iOS system, imposing a series of restrictions” to the delivery of digital goods and in-app purchases.
In this context, MercadoLibre considers that these “anti-competitive practices” of the US technology giant “exclude or limit the entry of competitors.”
The complaint was filed with the Federal Competition Commission of Mexico (Cofece) and the Administrative Council for Economic Defense of Brazil (CADE).
According to the Argentine firm, one of those “restrictions” of Apple is the “Prohibition of applications from distributing third-party digital goods and/or services, such as films, music, video games, booksetc”.
“Apple prevents MercadoLibre, or any other economic agent, from acting in the distribution of digital goods and services produced by third parties and from competing with Apple, which offers this service,” the information added.
This “prevents the emergence of markets for digital goods on iOS that challenge Apple’s current monopoly,” which “harms its competitors, unless they are integrated digital giants,” according to Jacobo Cohen, MercadoLibre’s senior legal vice president.
“But it also hurts consumers, who suffer from the excessive fees imposed by Apple and with the loss of visibility and easy access to other content options”, added the manager.
In the complaint, MercadoLibre also mentions the fact that Apple “forces developers, who offer digital goods or services within applications, to use only their payment processor and prohibits them from directing their application buyers to their own pages.” Web.
It defends that this practice, which was or is being investigated by the competition authorities of other countries, increases the costs, in an “undue” way, to the developers who compete with Apple due to the “high commissions it charges when they use its processor of Payments”.
Cohen stated in the note that, before filing the complaints, MercadoLibre tried “unsuccessfully” to get Apple to “modify those anti-competitive policies.”
“We would have preferred to avoid a conflict with one of the largest companies in the world. However, we are convinced that we are doing the right thing for the future of competition in digital markets, ”she stressed.
Founded in 1999 and present in 18 countries, MercadoLibre declares itself as the “leading technology company for electronic commerce and financial services in Latin America”, with “more than 88 million active users in the region”.
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