A group of U.S. lawmakers has asked the Department of Justice to probe Apple Inc. over potential antitrust law violations following its attempts to disable Beeper Inc.’s iMessage-like app.
In the few weeks since launching Beeper Mini, a mobile application that brings blue bubble iMessage services to Android users, the Palo Alto-based company has been in a war with Apple as the tech giant has attempted to shutter the app and Beeper’s access to its servers. It's a move Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Mike Lee (R-UT), along with Representatives Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Ken Buck (R-CO) said could be a potential antitrust violation.
In a letter to the DOJ signed on Sunday, the lawmakers said Beeper Mini posed a threat to Apple’s monopolistic hold on the market by "creating (a) more competitive mobile applications market, which in turn (creates) a more competitive mobile device market." Lawmakers said in the letter, which was addressed to the Justice Department’s top antitrust official Jonathan Kanter, that Apple’s actions eliminate consumer choice and discourage innovation.
"We also fear these types of tactics may more broadly chill future investment and innovation from those that seek to compete with existing digital gatekeepers," the lawmakers wrote.
Klobuchar and Lee are leaders of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on competition policy, antitrust and consumer rights.
Last week, Beeper said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Apple was “deliberately blocking” roughly 5% of Beeper Mini users from sending iMessages. It was the second attempt by the tech titan to block Beeper Mini’s capabilities.
In an original statement by Apple, the Cupertino-based tech titan said by blocking the app the company was taking steps to protect its users' privacy.
Apple and the DOJ did not immediately respond to the Business Journal’s request for comment.
In an interview with CNBC on Monday, Beeper CEO Eric Migicovsky said he believes Apple has held a monopoly on messaging and that his company is only trying to provide a service many want. Since launching Beeper Mini, there have been over 100,000 Android users that signed up, the company told CNBC.
In an interview with the Business Journal earlier this month, Migicovsky said Beeper is trying to break invisible social barrier imposed by green and blue text bubbles.
"There's a lot of artificial barriers that exist between us," Migicovsky, a former partner at Y Combinator, said. "Communication used to be pretty simple. You know, you dial the phone number, and you could chat with anyone. And over the last 20 years, these artificial silos have sprung up. They separate us. Logically, they should be able to message each other. It only comes down to the large tech companies that control these networks."
Beeper, a company Migicovsky co-founded in 2020 and then took through the Y Combinator program a year later, launched with the idea of being a multi-network chat support platform. The company has raised $11.63 million in funding and was last valued at $81.5 million, according to PitchBook Data. Beeper has backers such as Y Combinator and Samsung Next Ventures.
