DOJ Hits Apple with Antitrust Lawsuit Alleging Abuse of Monopoly Power

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple, targeting the Silicon Valley giant for its stranglehold over the iPhone ecosystem.

Bloomberg reports that the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has escalated its antitrust battle against major tech giants by filing a lawsuit against Apple, the world’s second-most-valuable technology company. The suit, filed by the DOJ and 16 attorneys general in a federal court in the District of New Jersey, alleges that Apple has violated antitrust laws by blocking rivals from accessing hardware and software features of its iPhone, among other abuses of monopoly power.

This latest legal action marks the third time in the past 14 years that the DOJ has sued Apple for antitrust violations, but it is the first case accusing the iPhone maker of illegally maintaining its dominant market position. The Biden administration has already initiated antitrust cases against other tech giants, including Google, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, and Amazon.

The move reportedly comes as part of the Biden administration’s efforts to address the growing concern over the market dominance of the biggest US technology companies.

News of the lawsuit has already impacted Apple’s stock, with shares falling more than three percent in early trading on Thursday. The company’s shares had been down 7.2 percent this year through Wednesday’s close.

Apple has also been facing increased scrutiny in Europe over alleged anticompetitive behavior. Earlier this month, the company was hit with a €1.8 billion ($1.95 billion) fine by European regulators for shutting out music streaming rivals from offering cheaper deals. Apple is appealing the penalty and has stated that regulators failed to uncover any “credible evidence of consumer harm.”

The company may also face a full-blown investigation under the European Union’s new rules for Big Tech, known as the Digital Markets Act, which went into force earlier this month. Rivals have already complained about new App Store rules that came into effect in Europe, arguing that the changes are likely to result in higher prices for developers. Penalties for failing to comply with the EU’s new rules can be severe, reaching up to 10 percent of a company’s annual worldwide revenue, or even 20 percent for repeat offenders.

The DOJ’s case against Apple began in 2019 under former President Donald Trump’s administration. However, the antitrust division chose to prioritize cases against Google, allowing Epic Games’s lawsuit against Apple for monopolization to proceed through the federal courts. The Epic Games case, which focused on Apple’s App Store policies, has been closely watched by the industry and has brought increased attention to the issue of antitrust violations in the tech sector.

Read more at Bloomberg here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.