APP STORE ANTITRUST EXPERT WITNESS CONSULTANTS: TESTIMONY AND REPORTS

19 May APP STORE ANTITRUST EXPERT WITNESS CONSULTANTS: TESTIMONY AND REPORTS

Posted at 19:45h in Uncategorized by

Haven’t met an app store antitrust expert witness yet as an attorney or law firm? Chances are, you will shortly. Digital distributors like Apple’s App Store and Google Play Store have become impactful on the multi-billion dollar downloadable software program economy. And like app store antitrust expert witness practitioners know, as the scrutiny around their policies and market power has intensified, online stores have faced increasing antitrust litigation and regulatory investigations. When these cases go to court, opinions are asked for in numerous contexts.

  1. Figuring out where things fit – Looking at factors like multi-homing ability, consumer substitutability between solutions, and the distinct characteristics of app distribution.
  2. Leverage that’s wielded – A app store antitrust expert witness consultant evaluates whether providers exercise monopoly or monopsony power over developers and content creators. Potential entry barriers like data advantages, network effects, and switching costs are assessed.
  3. App review policies and self-preferencing – There are allegations that app store policies around app review processes, rating algorithms, and service restrictions are applied in a discriminatory manner favoring first-party apps over third-party rivals.
  4. In-app payment steering restrictions – Exploring the mandatory in-app payment systems and associated fees charged by providers. It’s common to see a app store antitrust expert witness model the purported denied revenue and foreclosure effects of restrictions preventing developers from steering users to alternative payment options.
  5. Interoperability limitations and fragmentation – Some claim intentional lack of full interoperability, cross-platform capability, and standards adoption by providers unfairly raises developer costs and fragments distribution. Cost impacts are quantified.
  6. Tying policies and multi-product bundles – Tying allegations frequently arise around policies forcing developers to use propriety payment systems or distribute multiple apps as an all-or-nothing bundle rather than individually. Foreclosure effects are examined by the best app store antitrust expert witness firms.
  7. Mergers, acquisitions, and vertical issues – Pros investigate whether merger and acquisition activity by app store operators, like Facebook’s purchases of mobile apps and services, diminishes competitive threats or creates conflicts of interest as store operators.

 

As digital distributors have become centralized means of access to the mobile internet economy, the competitive effects of their policies have far-reaching ramifications. It’s where app store antitrust expert witness consultants bring clarity to business dynamics and the implications for innovation incentives.