Did Mercado Libre sue Apple in Mexico? this is what we know

Apple fails to disassociate itself from a term that scares more than one at this time: monopoly. And it is that the Cupertino company has been involved in related issues for some time, and now it is Mercado Libre that puts its finger on the sore.

At least that’s how it shows a recent report delivered by Reuters, which indicates that the giant of electronic commerce in Latin America has just sued Apple in Mexico and Brazil for alleged anti-competitive practices.

Apple and Google accused of monopoly in Mexico, app store fees are the problem

As expected, the lawsuit (according to the cited source) has to do with the alleged restrictions that Apple imposes from its app store to distribute third-party digital goods and services such as movies, music, video games, books and written content, according to a statement signed by Mercado Libre.

If we talk once again about the 30 percent commission within the App Store that has been the reason for Epic Games, Spotify and even Twitter to try to distance themselves from the company led by Tim Cook.

This is not the first time we have heard of a lawsuit for Apple in the national territory. In the past months it was revealed that Mony de Swaan Addati, who was the last President Commissioner of the Federal Telecommunications Commission, an organization now known as the Federal Institute of Telecommunications (IFT), filed a complaint with the regulatory entity in which accuses Apple and Google of “completely inhibiting competition.” This complaint was embraced by Cofece and is now ongoing.

The issue is not minor and is even more complex when looking at the consumer side. And it is that, according to the complainants, including Mercado Libre, iOS developers are forced to increase their rates as a result of the high commissions.

Mercado Libre challenges Apple

Specifically, Mercado Libre has criticized the in-app payment system that now reigns in the Apple App Store:

“This clearly hurts their competitors, unless they are themselves embedded digital giants, who may even benefit from this artificial tilt toward embedded ecosystems,” Jacobo Cohen Imach, Mercado Libre’s senior vice president of legal and public affairs, said in a statement.

Mercado Libre has said that “it unsuccessfully tried to get Apple to modify these anti-competitive behaviors.” And that, perhaps, will never change.

Despite having an endless number of developers, Apple seems immovable in the policies of its app store. History dictates it so and only time will tell if the pressure of giants like Mercado Libre will make a difference in markets like Mexico.