US Department of Justice finalizes lawsuit against Apple for illegal monopolistic practices

The U.S. federal government has its eyes on the monopolistic practices of the major technology companies. After the lawsuits filed by the Department of Justice against Google and by the Federal Communications Commission against Amazon and Meta, it is now Apple’s turn. The Department of Justice is finalizing a lawsuit against the company headed by Tim Cook for monopolistic practices that it considers illegal, according to Bloomberg, which notes that the legal action could be filed this Thursday.

The promotion of competition and the fight against monopolies are some of the banner policies of President Joe Biden. His government has not only sued technology giants, but has also shown its opposition to mergers and acquisitions that it believed could reduce competition in the market. Microsoft managed to get its purchase of Activision through the courts despite opposition from the authorities, but other operations have been derailed.

The Department of Justice filed two lawsuits against Google, one for alleged abuse of its dominant position in the search engine market — which has gone to trial and is awaiting judgment — and another for its monopolistic behavior in the digital advertising market, which is still pending. Now, the same Department, headed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, has targeted Apple, a company it had already targeted in two other minor cases.

The new lawsuit accuses the tech giant of violating antitrust laws by blocking rivals from accessing hardware and software features of its iPhone, Bloomberg reported. The publication of the news by the financial agency caused an immediate 1% drop in Apple’s share price in post-market trading. For a company worth $2.7 trillion on the stock market, that represents a loss in value of about $27 billion.

The offensive against Apple is not only being waged in Washington. Earlier this month, the European Commission imposed a fine of almost $2 billion on the company for abuse of a dominant position in the streaming music market. This breach of European competition laws, according to the European Commission, is based on the U.S. technology company preventing its competitors — for example Spotify — from reaching potential customers who use iPhones or iPads and offering them alternative services to Apple Music, or cheaper offers.

In addition, Apple is also facing demands from its competitors. The pressure intensified Wednesday when Meta Platforms, Microsoft, the social network X and the firm Match Group allied themselves to a complaint by Epic Games — the maker of the video game Fortnite — that Apple has breached a court order regulating payments in its app store.

The tech companies, which have developed some of the App Store’s most popular apps, claim Apple has “clearly” breached the 2021 court order by making it harder for consumers to pay for digital content more cheaply.

Epic sued Apple in 2020, alleging it violated antitrust law by forcing consumers to obtain apps through the App Store and charging developers up to 30% commission on purchases. The injunction required Apple to allow developers to provide links and buttons to direct consumers to alternative payment options. Last week, Epic demanded that Apple be held in contempt, claiming that the new rules and a new 27% fee imposed on developers rendered the links effectively useless.

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