Apple heads to court to try to get massive & vague DOJ antitrust suit dismissed

The Department of Justice (DOJ), together with multiple states, is accusing Apple of monopolistic practices, over the iPhone, the App Store, and most of the company's business. Following the start of that case in March 2024, Apple filed a motion to dismiss in August.

Now according to Reuters, Apple will today ask US District Judge Julien Neals in Newark, New Jersey, to dismiss the case. Central to Apple's case is its claim that being forced to share its technology with rivals would end innovation.

At the same time, lawyers for the DOJ will present its arguments for why the case should proceed. The DOJ's case has many parts, but as one example, it is accusing Apple of forcing people to buy iPhones in order to take part in Messages conversations.

This one accusation is illustrative of the whole DOJ case because it is nonsense. No doubt Apple knew this was going to be an accusation, but before the DOJ filed it, support for RCS on iPhone was announced.

So whatever the impetus really was, Apple is literally and unquestionably not doing what it is accused of. Similarly, the DOJ says Apple denies rivals access to its NFC technology in the iPhone — and it does not.

This is not a question of favoring Apple, or giving it the benefit of doubt, it is straight fact. There is no element of the DOJ's case that correctly accuses Apple of something that it is doing now.

Consequently, if the case is intended to stop Apple doing various antitrust things, it worked before it was even filed.

This should in theory mean that Apple's motion to dismiss should be granted. But this is not Apple versus a rival, it is Apple versus a bipartisan case brought by a federal agency, and multiple states.

It is extremely unlikely that the case will be dismissed. It is equally extremely unlikely that the DOJ can win, but the case isn't going to end today, it is going to run for years.