22 Mar 2024
The Department of Justice (DOJ) and 15 states sued the phone maker for creating a monopoly in the US smartphone market.
The DOJ accused Apple of charging heavily, making more profit than any other smartphone maker, raising prices, and hurting smaller businesses. It levies fees on business partners like software developers and credit card companies in a masked manner to hike its own profits. With this antitrust lawsuit, Apple joined the tech giants, like Google, Meta, and Amazon, who faced similar battles.
Apple charges its users a premium for technology products and controls how they work with its devices. It has also been charged with blocking or controlling competing technologies, like super apps, messaging apps, digital wallets, smartwatches, and some cloud-streaming gaming apps.
The DOJ aims to force the company to give users more freedom in choosing how apps work with Apple devices. The recently introduced Digital Markets Act in Europe deeply affected the Apple App Store. The Act forces Apple to allow access to third-party app stores on its devices.