[stonecraftwolf]

Did you read the article? The claim is that Apple delayed and denied app approval while trying to acquire the app, while approving the scam apps and approving other apps that incorporated his tech.

ETA: I find the dismissive reference to “conspiracy theories” to be a little weird. It’s not as though there isn’t a rich history of abuse of monopoly power, including restricting access to market. It’s unclear why FAANG companies would be uniquely immune to such temptations.

[zepto]

> It’s unclear why FAANG companies would be uniquely immune to such temptations.

The risk/reward makes it seem absurdly unlikely that Apple actually did this.

1. Approving scam apps hurts Apple.

2. Approving scam apps in order to screw with a competitor hurts Apple, and would need a widespread conspiracy within the company to do it successfully.

3. There is plenty of money to be made in attacking Apple either directly through a settlement, or indirectly.

[stonecraftwolf]

I think RileyJames’ comment provided a clear and realistic hypothesis of how Apple might come to abuse its monopoly power in this way without the sort of reasoning you assume, but it’s also probably relevant to note that Apple got caught conspiring with five major publishers to fix ebook prices largely because they had a private dinner where one of the publishing CEOs took literal notes on their conspiracy to fix prices. (Yes, really.)

Apple has been really dumb about antitrust law before. It’s not unrealistic to think they’d be dumb again. It’s not even dumb if you’ve been doing it routinely for years and only suffered consequences once or twice. Which I don’t think is unique to Apple — I think all the FAANG companies have gotten very accustomed to being able to do essentially whatever they want as long as they pay a minor fine every few years.

[Rule35]

> Approving scam apps hurts Apple.

The point isn't that they wanted scam apps, it's that they were so readily approving apps in the space that they even approved scams.

This suggests that they did so little review as to miss a scam, and therefore that any argument of "his app wasn't ready" isn't right.