Apple sued by US Department of Justice for antitrust violations

The US Department of Justice has officially filed an antitrust complaint against Apple.

According to technology/apple-doj-lawsuit-antitrust.html” target=”_blank” title=”(opens in a new window)”>The New York Times, the lawsuit was filed Thursday morning by the Justice Department and 16 state and district attorneys in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. The lawsuit accuses the tech giant of violating antitrust laws by blocking or restricting competitors in favor of its own iPhone-related software and hardware.

The lawsuit is the culmination of a 2019 antitrust investigation against big tech companies. The Justice Department has already sued Google for anticompetitive practices, and the Federal Trade Commission has pending cases against Meta and Amazon.

“Each step in Apple’s conduct has built and strengthened the moat around its smartphone monopoly,” the lawsuit reads. Specific practices mentioned include allegedly creating better compatibility between the iPhone and Apple Watch over other smartwatches, favoring its own apps over third-party competitors like Spotify, blocking apps cloud gaming from the App Store, blocking competitors from iMessage compatibility and restricting devices. like Tile which competes with AirTag.

In Europe, Apple has recently faced similar anti-competitive violations. In February, the European Commission fined the company $2 billion for blocking Spotify and other music apps from accessing cheaper music subscriptions through the App Store. The EU’s Digital Markets Act, which took effect in March, imposes strict regulations aimed at breaking the dominance of big tech and will likely also impact Apple’s practices in Europe.