Apple is once again facing antitrust investigation, this time to determine whether its mobile advertising policies constitute unfair business practices.
According to multiple reports, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will be probing the company to determine if its tactics are restrictive to competitors in the mobile advertising space, such as recent Google acquisition AdMob.
Several companies have alleged that they have been excluded from running or selling advertising on iPhones and other Apple mobile devices by the company’s policies.
Apple’s mobile ad platform, called iAds, was just unveiled a couple months ago. iAds was discussed at some length during Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ keynote earlier this month a WWDC, the company’s annual developer conference. At the time, Jobs reported the company had been selling iAds for just eight weeks.
These reports come in the immediate wake of antitrust inquiries over Apple’s war on Flash and the company’s marketing practices for iTunes.
And with the FTC’s recent investigation of the Google acquisition of mobile ad platform AdMob, we’re sure these feds are well versed in the mobile advertising industry.
What do you think: Will this investigation — or any of the others — amount to anything in the eyes of the American and international iPhone-buying public?
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