Apple Tips Millions Into Trying To Buy Influence,As US Officals Move In On Dodgy Business Practises

Desperate Apple have amazed an army of lobbyists and are desperatly trying to buy up influence in the USA to try and ward off an investigation of their business practises with over 80 visits to the White House to lobby US officials and the US President.

Last week Apple was forced by European Union officials into a humiliating U-turn, after their marketplace bullying came unstuck in their Apple Store battle with Epic games.

Now it appears that the big iPhone who is well known for their questionable bullying tactics is tipping hundreds of millions into heading off several US investigation of their business practises.

New information reveals that Apple management so desperate to avoid a microscope being put on the business practises that they have mustered an army of advisors to lobby Federal officials in the USA with the New York Post revealing that lobbyists and Apple executives including CEO Tim Cook have had over 80 meetings at the White House and that includes several meetings with President Joe Biden.

A A$.5 trillion-dollar business, Apple is buying up anyone with influence or ties to the White House and the US Justice Department, in what appears to be a desperate attempt to avoid a full-on investigation of the Company.Folling $3 billion dollar fines in Europe this month and in light of Apple’s massive step down over the weekend the stakes are now high for Apple as it faces the prospect of an antitrust crackdown that could force major changes to how it does business across its sprawling empire – from its dominant iPhone business to its lucrative and controversial App Store.

Even Australian regulators are looking at how Apple conducts its business.

The US Justice Department is currently working on a sweeping antitrust suit alleging that Apple has used illegal tactics to maintain the dominance of its iPhone.

Elsewhere, Apple’s crackdown of the popular “Beeper Mini” messaging app and its ugly Apple Watch patent infringement case have drawn the attention of regulators.

In Congress, Apple has lobbied hard against aggressive bipartisan antitrust legislation such as the Open App Markets Act and the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA) – the latter of which Cook reportedly personally called senators to lobby against in 2022. Both would add new restrictions on how Apple operates the App Store.The NYP have revealed that Apple executives or company-affiliated lobbyists appear in the White House’s public visitor logs at least 87 times since President Biden took office in 2021 — with Cook personally visiting the White House at least 11 times for listed meetings with least 14 officials since 2021.

This included lobbying the White House over the ban on the Apple Watch after Apple were accused of stealing Masimo medical technology for use in the Apple Watch.

The fight with Masimo put Apple in the rare position of having to fight to get a ban on the Apple Watch lifted.

The US ITC determined in October that Apple violated two Masimo health-technology patents with a blood-oxygen sensor in its watches.

The White House had 60 days to review the import ban, with the decision resting with US Trade Representative Katherine Tai.

Ambassador Tai decided not to reverse the ITC’s determination and the ITC’s decision became final on December 26, 2023.

It appears that Apple is now desperate in an Election year in the USA, to get US authorities onside as several US officials move to try and take Apple down because of their monopolistic business practises.

CEO Tim Cook has had three visits with President Biden, the most recent of which occurred in June 2023 as Apple fought Masimo in the courts.

Cook’s White House visits have included attending at least two of the four state dinners Biden has had since taking office — one with France’s Macron and one with India’s Modi.

At this stage it’s not known how much money Apple is tipping into Bidens re-election campaign.

What we do know is that bulk of Apple and its affiliates’ contributions to congressional and federal candidates went to Democrats, with 88% and 89.2% of the total amount of dollars, respectively, given to Democrats Open Secrets data shows.

According to senior Industry lobbyists, who spoke to the NYP the sheer number of Cook’s White House visits are staggering — even for a high-profile business executive.

“Other than [ex-Google CEO] Eric Schmidt, who had significant relationships in the Obama White House and figures like Peter Thiel under Trump, I can’t think of anyone else who is as close to an administration,” said Jeff Hauser, executive director at the Revolving Door Project told the New York publication.

The major offensive is just “the tip of the iceberg of what they are spending in order to influence Washington,” according to Hauser – who noted that the true scale of Apple’s influence campaign is nearly impossible to determine.

The White House and the Justice Department declined to comment.

On the subject of the potential antitrust bills, Apple said it had engaged in constructive dialogue with some lawmakers but still opposed the legislation.

“We remain concerned that this legislation threatens to break this model and undermine the privacy and security protections our users depend on,” Apple said in the statement.

“Apple has a massive war chest for buying friends, and the eve of a major enforcement action is exactly when you’d expect them to call in favours,” said one well-connected Democrat.

“Congress and the White House aren’t subject to freedom of information requests, but it would be pretty revealing to see who was under pressure from Apple and its powerful insider friends to undermine the antitrust division’s budget.”

Indeed, several members of the Biden administration or associates of the president have deep ties to Apple.

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco is a former partner at O’Melveny & Myers who did legal work for Apple as recently as 2020, while ex-Biden campaign adviser Cynthia Hogan was Apple’s vice president for public policy and government affairs from 2016 through 2020. White House deputy press secretary and longtime Biden aide Olivia Dalton recently took a communications gig at Apple, Bloomberg reported.

Another key figure is Karen Dunn, a Democrat-linked lawyer at the white-shoe firm Paul Weiss who has represented Apple on several occasions – including its antitrust war with “Fortnite” maker Epic Games.

News Corp Media in the USA claim that Overall, Apple’s total spending on federal lobbying efforts amounted to A$50 million from 2020 through 2023.

Antitrust watchdogs said Apple also uses various tactics that don’t show up in its federal lobbying tally — including frequent intervention at the state level to block or water down bills that could hurt its business.

In one case, Apple hired lobbying firm Covington & Burling, led by Shara Aranof – the ex-chair of the International Trade Commission under President Obama – to unsuccessfully lobby on its behalf in the Apple Watch Masimo patent saga.

The company paid more than A$760,000 for roughly a month’s work, Politico reported.

The iPhone maker also has taken steps to bolster its defenses by hiring people with institutional knowledge of the DOJ’s cash-strapped antitrust division.

Observers claim that Apple is getting desperate with their past now catching up with them on multiple continents.

At the same time sales of their popular iPgone is faltering especially in big markets such as China where the business opened another Apple Store this week.