Apple ne trouve que peu de sympathie auprès des juges allemands dans son appel en matière d'antitrust.

German federal judges in Karlsruhe suggested on Tuesday that they are inclined to support the country's antitrust regulator in its legal dispute with Apple after a lengthy deliberation on whether the tech giant should face additional regulations.

The German cartel office declared Apple a company of paramount cross-market significance for competition in April 2023, potentially leading to actions to limit its market dominance.

Presiding judge Wolfgang Kirchhoff noted that the assessment revealed Apple's significant impact across markets. Despite this, the Federal Court of Justice postponed issuing a verdict on Tuesday, opting for more deliberation.

Apple's legal team urged the court to seek guidance from the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg to ensure alignment with EU law, questioning the compatibility of German regulations with EU standards. Kirchhoff stated that, in their view, such a referral was unnecessary.

If upheld, Apple would join Google's parent company Alphabet and Meta, owner of Facebook, as entities in Germany subject to heightened scrutiny due to their "paramamount cross-market significance."