Apple Is Sued By U.S. Over iPhone Monopoly Claims — Read The Full Lawsuit Here

The U.S. Justice Department and 16 attorneys general on Thursday sued Apple Inc. for violation of antitrust laws by blocking rivals from accessing hardware and software features on its popular devices.

The suit filed in New Jersey federal court is the culmination of a five-year probe into the iPhone maker. In the lawsuit, the Biden Administration alleges that the tech company has used its power over app distribution on the iPhone to thwart innovations which could have given users the option to switch phones easily.

Citing internal mails and policies since the time of Steve Jobs, the lawsuit alleges that instead of lowering smartphone prices or better monetisation for developers to counter competition, Apple would meet “competitive threats by imposing a series of shapeshifting rules and restrictions” in its App Store guidelines and developer agreements. That allowed it to “extract higher fees, thwart innovation, offer a less secure or degraded user experience, and throttle competitive alternatives”.

The Department of Justice alleged that the company deployed this playbook across many technologies, products, and services, including super apps, text messaging, smartwatches, and digital wallets, among many others.

“Apple’s conduct also stifles new paradigms that threaten Apple’s smartphone dominance, including the cloud, which could make it easier for users to enjoy high-end functionality on a lower priced smartphone—or make users device-agnostic altogether,” it alleged.

The iPhone maker's anticompetitive conduct not only limits competition in the smartphone market, but also reverberates through the industries that are affected by these restrictions, including financial services, fitness, gaming, social media, news media, entertainment, and more.