Apple finds little sympathy from German judges in antitrust appeal

KARLSRUHE, Germany, Jan 28 (Reuters) - German federal judges indicated on Tuesday that they could back the country's antitrust regulator in a legal battle with Apple AAPL.O, following over three hours of deliberations over whether the U.S. tech giant should be subject to additional controls.

The German cartel office said in April 2023 it considered Apple a "company of paramount cross-market significance for competition", opening the door to possible measures curbing its dominance.

Wolfgang Kirchhoff, presiding judge on the panel assessing Apple's appeal against the designation, said an overall assessment had shown it could be true that Apple has such significance across markets.

However, the Federal Court of Justice held off on handing down a ruling on Tuesday, calling for more time to deliberate.

The legal team representing Apple urgently called on the court to consult with the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg before taking a decision, arguing that German law may not be in line with EU law on the issue.

Kirchhoff had said in his opening comments that the judges saw no grounds for a referral to the EU court.

If confirmed, Apple would join Google parent Alphabet GOOGL.O and Facebook owner Meta META.O as companies subject to extra controls in Germany over their "paramount cross-market significance".