The U.S. Department of Justice has sued Apple for driving up prices and creating a ‘smartphone monopoly.’
The DOJ was joined by 15 states in its lawsuit, Reuters said.
“Consumers should not have to pay higher prices because companies violate the antitrust laws,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “If left unchallenged, Apple will only continue to strengthen its smartphone monopoly.”
Apple’s MO has involved charging customers for products where “Apple dictates nearly all of the details of how the device works and can be used,” per Reuters.
Now, the DOJ wants Apple to offer more choices “around how apps can tap into the hardware that Apple designs,” Reuters reported.
“The Justice Department, which was also joined by the District of Columbia in the lawsuit, alleges that Apple uses its market power to get more money from consumers, developers, content creators, artists, publishers, small businesses and merchants,” according to Reuters.
According to the lawsuit, the DOJ said is focusing on “freeing smartphone markets from Apple’s anticompetitive and exclusionary conduct and restoring competition to lower smartphone prices for consumers, reducing fees for developers, and preserving innovation for the future.”
For example, the U.S. said Apple “made it more difficult for competing messaging apps and smartwatches to work smoothly on its phones. They also allege that Apple’s app store policies around streaming services for games have hurt competition,” according to Reuters.
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who died in 2021, was quoted
“that it was ‘not fun to watch’ how easily consumers could switch from iPhones to Android phones and vowing to ‘force’ developers to use its payment systems in an effort to lock in both developers and consumers,” per Reuters.
Apple disagreed, saying, “This lawsuit threatens who we are and the principles that set Apple products apart in fiercely competitive markets. If successful, it would hinder our ability to create the kind of technology people expect from Apple — where hardware, software, and services intersect.”
