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Apple Could Face Antitrust Inquiry over Section 3.3.1

Apple changed their section 3.3.1 of their iPhone Developer Program Licence Agreement which basically bans Adobe Flash from the iPhone. Well according to an article over on the NY Post, a person familiar with the situation says the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission are in negotiations as to which watchdog begins an antitrust inquiry into the new policy.

The source has said that regulators and day away from coming to a decision as to which agency will run the investigation which is to focus on last months policy to find out whether it potentially kills competition through forcing developers to choose between coming up with applications which are platform neutral for a variety of OSs, or develop applications specifically for Apple products.

Although starting an inquiry doesn’t necessarily mean Apple will have any action taken against them, and Apple argues that the new rule is there to ensure the quality of the applications they offer to customers.

An official inquiry is launched to find out if a full investigation is required and if so Apple will be issued a subpoena for information on the policy; however at this time both the FTC and Justice department have declined to comment on the matter.

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