The New York Time reports that the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission are “locked in negotiations over which of the watchdogs will begin an antitrust inquiry into Apple’s new policy of requiring software developers who devise applications for devices such as the iPhone and iPad to use only Apple’s programming tools.”

Section 3.3.1 of Apple’s SDK for App Store app is the one that banned third party development tools, thus excluding tools like Flash Catalytist from being used by devs to create their applications.

Also:

“An inquiry doesn’t necessarily mean action will be taken against Apple, which argues the rule is in place to ensure the quality of the apps it sells to customers. Typically, regulators initiate inquiries to determine whether a full-fledged investigation ought to be launched. If the inquiry escalates to an investigation, the agency handling the matter would issue Apple a subpoena seeking information about the policy.”

We’ll keep you posted about it, but I have the feeling that Apple has the right to do what it wants with the App Store, and that the FTC can’t do anything about it.

[via 9to5mac]