Apple is facing a lawsuit in the United States for alleged antitrust violations. According to Bloomberg, the US Department of Justice is suing Apple for alleged antitrust violations.
The United States Department of Justice accuses Apple of preventing competitors from accessing the hardware and software functions of the iPhone. 16 state and district attorneys are joining the Justice Department in accusing Apple of engaging in “large-scale exclusionary behavior” that harms both consumers and competitors.
“Apple is undermining applications, products and services that would allow users to be less dependent on iPhone, promote interoperability and reduce costs for consumers and developers,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland in a press release.
Apple deliberately “degraded the cross-platform messaging market”
The complaint also mentions that Apple has deliberately “degraded the cross-platform messaging market” and “blocked the growth of applications with ‘extended features’ that would make it easier to change smartphones.”
The complaint also states that Apple “removed mobile cloud streaming services in markets such as gaming and ‘diminished’ the functionality of non-Apple smartwatches.”
The United States Department of Justice is currently pursuing antitrust proceedings against Google, while the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is preparing antitrust proceedings against Microsoft and Amazon.
Business succession
This legal attack against Apple is the third case of this type in the last 14 years.
Apple is also under investigation in the European Union (EU) for alleged anti-competitive behavior. The company has already been fined €1.8 billion for unfairly discriminating against its competitors, including Spotify, in the music streaming market.
And with the recent entry into force of the European Digital Markets Act, the DMA, it is increasingly likely that Apple will be investigated for its monopoly on the App Store. Furthermore, the European Union has designated Apple as one of the rare “guardians” of the Internet and forced it to change the way its App Store operates, under penalty of being inflicted with further fines of several billion dollars.