Cook says Apple is not a monopoly as government begins antitrust probe

As Apple reportedly faces the potential for a Justice Department investigation into anti-competitive behavior, CEO Tim Cook says the company’s inferior position in the global smartphone market could be its saving grace.

“I think we should be scrutinized. But if you look at our – any kind of measure about is Apple a monopoly or not, I don’t think anybody reasonable is going to come to the conclusion that Apple’s a monopoly,” Cook said in an interview with CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell. “Our share is much more modest. We don’t have a dominant position in any market.”

Apple lags behind Samsung and Huawei in terms of worldwide market share for smartphones as of the first quarter of 2019, according to the International Data Corporation. While the iPhone appears to be ubiquitous in the U.S., other brands are more prevalent internationally.

Given Apple’s relatively small market share in that space, Cook said, “We are not a monopoly.”

But the antitrust argument against Apple does not hinge on its iPhone sales. Advocates of breaking up big tech companies like Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts argue companies like Apple should not be able to run marketplaces and sell their own products on them.

App developers like Spotify have complained Apple uses its App Store to unfairly limit rivals to its own services. And recently, the Supreme Court ruled that consumers could bring a lawsuit against Apple that argues the company inflates the price of iPhone software by taking a 30% commission on app sales.

Cook said in the CBS interview he “strongly disagree[s]” with Warren’s push to break up parts of Apple’s business.

“I think some people would argue, if you are selling a good, then you can’t have a product that competes with that good,” Cook said. But that argument “takes you down the path that, Walmart shouldn’t be stocking alternative or house brand … And so this is decades of U.S. law here.”

The renewed scrutiny of Apple is part of a larger focus on big tech among the U.S.’s top antitrust authorities. Shares of Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Google parent Alphabet all tumbled on Monday following reports that the DOJ and Federal Trade Commission were dividing responsibilities for probing those companies over antitrust concerns.

According to the reports from The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, the DOJ will take oversight of Apple and Alphabet, while the FTC will focus on Amazon and Facebook. The FTC is already mulling consequences for Facebook related to its investigation into whether it violated a 2011 consent decree over handling user data. Facebook told investors it believes the fine could be as high as $5 billion.

Watch the full interview on CBS News.

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Watch: Big tech antitrust investigations will likely take years, WSJ reporter says