Apple does not appear willing to participate in an upcoming Senate hearing on anti-competitive app store practices. In one spotted by Addressed to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Senators Amy Klobuchar and Mike Lee, Chairman and Senior Republican of the Senate Judicial Antitrust Subcommittee, say the company brutally refused to send a witness 16 days before the scheduled start of these hearings.
According to the letter, Apple cited “ongoing litigation” as the reason for its decision. The company is currently embroiled in a very public legal battle with Epic Games over its . Klobuchar and Lee go on to point out that Apple has found ways to make witnesses available in similar situations in the past. They also refer to the testimonials provided by the company in the and when these two states reviewed their recent App Store reform bills and an interview Tim Cook did with in which he spoke about Epic and the App Store. If Apple ends up not participating in the hearing, this will be particularly noticeable given that Google has agreed to comply with the panel.
“Apple’s sudden change of course to refuse to provide a witness to testify before the subcommittee on competition issues in app stores in April, when the company is clearly willing to discuss it in others public forums, is unacceptable, ”the letter concludes. We have reached out to Apple for feedback and will update this article when the company responds to us.
