Wesley Hilliard
The United States Department of Justice will finally file an antitrust lawsuit against Apple on Thursday, probably.
An antitrust investigation against Apple by the DOJ has been underway since a complaint from Spotify in 2019. Over the years, other Apple competitors added to the case in 2020, 2021, and 2022.
According to a report from Bloomberg, the DOJ is finally ready to sue Apple due to antitrust concerns. The lawsuit is set to be filed as soon as Thursday.
The investigation seemed like it would never end as empty promises of a lawsuit were offered for four consecutive years. Everything seemed to finally be approaching an actual lawsuit after Apple was given its customary pre-filing meeting in February 2024.
Filing the lawsuit is just the beginning. The DOJ will have to make its case, Apple will undoubtedly appeal, and the cycle will repeat for years to come.
There is a chance that the DOJ will seek a ruling that gets US customers access to similar requirements set by the EU Digital Markets Act. Apple has had to create 600 new APIs to open up iOS to alternative marketplaces and new payment options, and the US government may use the existence of such tools as leverage to push for compliance.
News of the DOJ finally suing Apple arrives just hours after US companies complain over Apple's implementation of removing anti-steering practices. The US courts will likely rule for changes to Apple's business model, but there's no telling what form those changes will take.
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34 Comments
There’s zero chance the DOJ is going to try to sue in U.S. court for everything in the DMA. Congress didn’t pass any new regulations. They have to try for something that was already on the books. EU had to pass new laws because Apple didn’t violate the old ones.
I may be wrong, but it seems like so many of these legal issues would be resolved if Apple offered a version of the iPhone hardware for sale without any OS installed, at a higher price that reflected the fact that the in-app purchases customers make help subsidize the hardware. Almost nobody would buy the hardware-only version, but it would help clarify the situation for lawmakers who may otherwise struggle to understand the bigger picture.
If the DOJ wants to sue and make the so-called Gatekeepers as defined by the EU stay out of each other's lawn/ecosystems for the sake of competition no problem but the DOJ really isn't interested that or real competition, many want Apple to be just HP or Dell.....Just die off with all the other vertical computer companies from the 1980's and 1990's and sell parts to the local chop shop on the corner for repairs.
And it's a battle of the one percent.