MercadoLibre Files Antitrust Complaints Against Apple in Brazil and Mexico

MercadoLibre has filed complaints against Apple with regulators in Brazil and Mexico.

In filings with antitrust regulators, the Latin American eCommerce giant complained that Apple requires companies that sell digital goods and services within apps to use Apple’s payment system, Reuters reported Monday (Dec. 5).

“This clearly harms its competitors, unless they are integrated digital giants themselves, who may even benefit from this artificial tilt towards integrated ecosystems,” said Jacobo Cohen Imach, senior vice president of legal and public affairs at MercadoLibre, according to the report.

The filings with Brazil’s Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) and Mexico’s Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) and Federal Economic Competition Commission (COFECE) said Apple imposes a series of restrictions and abuses what MercadoLibre said is a “monopoly” on the distribution of apps for Apple devices, the report said.

Cohen Imach said the firm had tried “unsuccessfully” to negotiate with Apple and that while it would have preferred to avoid conflict, “we are convinced that we are doing the right thing for the future of competition,” per the report.

Apple and MercadoLibre did not immediately respond to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

Apple has faced complaints around its App Store from other firms as well.

In September, the Financial Times reported that Spotify Founder Daniel Ek had visited Brussels to pressure the European Commission to accelerate a case against Apple’s “anti-competitive conduct,” about three years after Spotify had filed a complaint with European regulators saying Apple had been taking a 30% cut of its subscription fees for featuring it on the App Store and preventing Spotify from telling users about other ways of upgrading.

In August, Reuters reported that French developers sued Apple in U.S. federal court, accusing the tech giant of violating American antitrust law by overcharging them to use its App Store.