After explaining that to keep markets in the U.S. free and open, the Antitrust Division must be able to “police abuses of market power.” The letter then explains what happened and notes that “Apple executives have previously admitted the company leverages iMessage to lock users into Apple’s ecosystem of devices and services. Beeper Mini threatened to reduce this leverage creating [a] more competitive mobile applications market, which in turn a more competitive mobile device market.”
The letter also cites a report from the Department of Commerce called “Competition in the Mobile Application Ecosystem.” The report calls Apple a “gatekeeper” with a “mobile app ecosystem” The end of the letter mentions that the four lawmakers who affixed their signatures to the latter are concerned that Apple’s recent actions to disable Beeper Mini harm competition while hurting consumers “and will discourage future innovation and invention in interoperable messaging services.”
The lawmakers are referring the matter to the Antitrust Division to investigate whether Apple violated antitrust law.
