Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke to Ted Cruz for 40 minutes to discuss antitrust bills
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Republican Senator Ted Cruz said that he spoke to Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) Chief Executive Tim Cook for 40 minutes on Wednesday, with the tech chieftain discussing his concerns about antitrust legislation that is being debated by Congress.
One of the bills being discussed is the American Innovation and Online Choice Act, which would prohibit platforms from favoring their own products over others. The other bill, known as Open App Markets Act, appears likely to impact Apple and Google's (GOOG, GOOGL) app stores and force them to allow third-party app stores, known as side-loading, and let developers tell consumers about workarounds for lower priced software. This would let developers bypass the fees Apple and Google charge, which range between 15% and 30%.
In comments obtained by CNBC, Senator Cruz said Cook raised one issue he thought was "reasonable."
âOne issue that he raised, that I thought was a reasonable issue was a concern, that the bill would erect obstacles to Apple giving consumers the ability to opt out of apps monitoring what theyâre doing online where theyâre going, and whatâs occurring on their phone," Cruz said.
Cruz added: âI want to clarify for the record that I donât read the language of this bill as applying to or as being intended to apply to tech companies giving consumers the ability to exercise choice or to opt-out of privacy invasive policies."
However, Cruz has issues with the bill, but voted to move it out of committee, according to Axios. CNBC added that by a 16-6 vote on party lines, with Republicans all voting no, the bill was voted to move out of committee to the full Senate.
Seeking Alpha has reached out to Apple with a request for comment for this story.
Cook's conversation with Cruz comes just days after Apple lobbyist Timothy Powderly warned that pending legislation floating around in the Senate would hurt the company's privacy protection tool that it rolled out last year and may aid âthose who have been irresponsible with usersâ data.â
In a letter written to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which Cruz sits on, Powderly wrote that the response from consumers to Apple's App Tracking Transparency, or ATT, which it rolled out last year, has been "overwhelmingly positive," while adding that "some of the largest social media and advertising companies have very publicly complained about the impact of these new privacy protections on their profits."
Earlier this week, Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan noted that Apple (AAPL) likely had strong growth in the App Store in its fiscal 2022 first-quarter, citing data from Sensor Tower.