By Sam Ozer-Staton

“There’s an app for that” is one of the most iconic slogans of the internet age. Sesame Street even turned it into a song. The phrase, which Apple coined in a 2009 ad campaign and trademarked a year later, was used to promote the launch of its revolutionary App Store. 

But these days, not everyone finds the ubiquity of the App Store cute or charming. Competitors and regulators have alleged that the platform, which Apple CEO Tim Cook has called “an economic miracle,” constitutes an illegal exercise of monopoly power. 

Last year, following an extensive investigation, the House Judiciary Committee released a sweeping report alleging anti-competitive practices in Big Tech. The report concluded that “Apple exerts monopoly power in the mobile app store market, controlling access to more than 100 million iPhones and iPads in the U.S.” The report went on to allege that Apple uses its App Store to “create and enforce barriers to competition and discriminate against and exclude rivals” and “to exploit app developers through misappropriation of competitively sensitive information.”