Weekly Rewind: 5/2/25
Court Ruling Against Apple Unleashes App Market Innovation, DOJ Sues Big Medicine Medicare Advantage Insurers for Bribing Brokers, and More.
Epic Win: Court Ruling Against Apple Unleashes App Market Innovation
In a bombshell ruling on Thursday, a federal judge said Apple must “immediately” allow all U.S. app developers to let consumers make cheaper purchases through the developers’ websites. The ruling will provide a massive boost to developers squeezed for years by Apple’s 30% App Store monopoly tax.
It’s already unleashing innovation — and cost savings for consumers.
Less than 24 hours after the ruling, Spotify announced it has submitted an iOS update to allow users to pay for subscriptions on the company’s website, avoiding the fee. Content monetization platform Patreon announced it it is submitting an iOS update to allow creators to accept payment outside of Apple’s payment system—”a huge moment for creators and their business,” according to the company. Stripe released a guide for developers to use the company’s payment processor “with no iOS app store commissions,” immediately injecting competition into a previously-monopolized market.
The ruling stems back to an August 2020 antitrust complaint filed by Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, targeting Apple’s anticompetitive practice of preventing developers from offering iOS app downloads and in-app purchases outside of the App Store — where Apple collects a 30% tax. In September 2021, Judge Gonzalez Rogers ruled for Apple on Epic’s federal antitrust claims but, crucially, she ruled in favor of Epic under California’s unfair competition law, issuing a permanent injunction ordering Apple to refrain from preventing developers from adding links that “direct customers to [other] purchasing mechanisms.”
After exhausting all appeals, in January 2024, Apple told the court it was complying with the injunction. Epic responded with a motion arguing that Apple was still defying the court’s order by using workarounds, including “scare screens” specifically designed to deter users from clicking on links to developers’ websites. Judge Gonzalez Rogers not only ruled for Epic this week, she also referred Apple’s misconduct to the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California “to investigate whether criminal contempt proceedings are appropriate,” both against Apple and an executive who “outright lied under oath.”
DOJ Sues Big Medicine Medicare Advantage Insurers for Bribing Brokers
On Friday, the Department of Justice sued three of the largest insurer participants in Medicare Advantage—the privatized version of Medicare which now covers more than half of Medicare patients—for allegedly paying brokers hundreds of millions of dollars in kickbacks to both steer customers toward their plans and as well as discouraging those with disabilities from enrolling in them. The case against Aetna, Elevance Health, and Humana—three vertically-integrated Fortune 40 Big Medicine conglomerates—was filed under the False Claims Act.
This is separate from the antitrust investigation into monopolization and fraud at the largest Medicare Advantage plan provider, UnitedHealth Group, which is ongoing.
Colorado Passes Anti-Algorithmic Rent Fixing Bill
On Thursday, the Colorado legislature officially passed HB25-1004—a bill that would rein in the use of algorithmic rent-setting software in rental housing markets—becoming the first state to pass a “rent-fixing” ban through both legislative chambers. Colorado now stands as on the precipice of joining San Francisco, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, San Diego, and Berkeley, where municipal leaders have already enacted restrictions on the use of this kind of software. Meanwhile, several other states are considering such bans in the ongoing legislative session.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis has 30 days to sign the legislation, and we’ll be monitoring the situation closely.
Jim Jordan Tries, Fails to Strip FTC Antitrust Authority
On Monday, Politico reported that the House Judiciary Committee’s markup of Trump’s “big, beautiful” mega-bill heading through Congress contained language to strip the Federal Trade Commission of its antitrust capacity—transferring it to the Department of Justice.
By Wednesday, the language had been removed—with House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, a fierce enemy of antitrust enforcement, among the few members to have supported it.
The failure of this radical antitrust reform is a major relief for anyone concerned with fair competition. While presented as an earnest government efficiency effort, folding the FTC’s antitrust capacity into the DOJ would have effectively repealed Section 5 of the FTC Act, which gives the FTC alone the authority to police unfair methods of competition—authority it has used to ban coercive noncompete agreements, to sue major pharmacy benefit managers Caremark, Express Scripts, and UnitedHealth’s OptumRx for jacking up drug prices, and to target parts of Amazon’s business that unfairly raise prices for consumers. While the bill language theoretically gave the DOJ the ability to continue transferred FTC cases, the DOJ has no authority to pursue cases under Section 5 and this legislation doesn’t give it to them.
Also buried in the markup was language that would have empowered Attorney General Pam Bondi, rather than DOJ Antitrust chief Gail Slater, to decide the fate of ongoing FTC antitrust cases, as well as control the agency’s consent orders, administrative enforcement, investigative studies, and more.
De Minimis Loophole Again Closed for Chinese Imports, but Enforcement Issues Remain
At 12:01am this morning, the Trump administration ended de minimis duty-free access for low-value imports from China. Closing the de minimis loophole is something Rethink Trade has demanded for years, along with many Democratic members of Congress, unions, consumer groups, and small businesses. AELP warned that this change will only result in fewer unsafe imports—including deadly fentanyl-laced pills—and accurate and robust tariff collection if Trump does not again reverse course if he faces blowback, extends the policy to all countries, and requires strong customs enforcement.
As Rethink Trade Director Lori Wallach revealed in a Wednesday thread, on April 28 at the demand of express delivery companies, the administration stealthily rolled back a longstanding Customs regulation that would have required many of the former de minimis shipments to meet strict “Formal Entry” customs rules. When asked about the enforcement waiver, the administration said it intends to require 10-digit HTS codes to be included for informal entries. AELP is demanding that the administration formally post this requirement if that is its plan. (It would help to ensure proper enforcement for imports under $2,500 even if they do not enter via formal entry.)
Read Lori's follow-up thread for more details.
Quick Hits:
New Republican FTC Commissioner Mark Meador gave his first public remarks since his confirmation—a speech outlining how the future of conservative antitrust must confront the tyranny of concentrated corporate power.
Economic Liberties released model legislation for states to stop corporate takeovers and roll-ups of veterinary practices.
On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued a 2-1 ruling affirming a lower court decision to block the latest, and most extreme, move in the Trump Administration’s campaign to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: the firing of of nearly 1,500 workers, or 90 percent of the agency’s staff.
The National Grocers Association is warning that tariff price and supply shocks could benefit dominant corporations at the expense of independent grocers, and is asking regulators to be vigilant, echoing an analysis from Research Director Matt Stoller.