US DOJ announces antitrust lawsuit against tech giant Apple
Al Jazeera
Department of Justice is joined by 15 states and the District of Columbia in alleging that Apple stifles competition.
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a landmark civil antitrust lawsuit against the tech giant Apple, alleging that the company has stifled competition to boost its revenues and illegally monopolize the US smartphone market.
The 88-page suit was filed Thursday in a New Jersey federal court with 16 state and district attorneys general joining the DOJ.
At issue is Apple’s most popular product, the iPhone, which is the linchpin of the company’s $2.7 trillion valuation. With more than a billion users, Apple has manipulated its share of the market to undermine competitors’ products and advantage its own, according to the DOJ.
Instead of competing with rivals by offering more affordable services, federal and state authorities allege that Apple imposed “a series of shapeshifting rules and restrictions” to “extract higher fees, thwart innovation, offer a less secure or degraded user experience, and throttle competitive alternatives”.
“Consumers should not have to pay higher prices because companies violate the antitrust laws,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “If left unchallenged, Apple will only continue to strengthen its smartphone monopoly.”
