The US Justice Department is reportedly preparing to file a federal antitrust case against Apple for keeping customers locked into its ecosystem. According to a report in The New York Times, citing sources, the Justice Department is in \u201clate stages\u201d of a probe into the iPhone maker for \u201cits control over its hardware and software to make it difficult for consumers to ditch the company\u2019s devices.\u201d<\/p>\n
The investigation is looking at how Apple blocks competitors from using iMessage as well as how the Apple Watch works better when used with the iPhone. Additionally, the Justice Department is reportedly examining how Apple prevents third-party providers from using iPhone-specific payment services. \u201cSenior leaders in the Justice Department\u2019s antitrust division are reviewing the results of the investigation so far,\u201d said the report, citing people aware of the matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cApple has not had a final meeting with the Justice Department in which it can make its case to the government before a lawsuit is filed,\u201d the report mentioned. Apple was yet to comment on the report. The company has said in the past that its practices do not violate antitrust law. According to Apple, its \u201capproach has always been to grow the pie\u201d and \u201ccreate more opportunities not just for our business, but for artists, creators, entrepreneurs and every \u2018crazy one\u2019 with a big idea.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2020, Apple CEO Tim Cook said during testimony before a congressional antitrust committee that the company redefined mobile phones with \u201cits effortless user experience, its simplicity of design and a high-quality ecosystem.\u201d \u201cApple does not have a dominant market share in any market where we do business. That is not just true for the iPhone; it is true for any product category,\u201d Cook had said.<\/p>\n
In February last year, The Wall Street Journal reported the DOJ was in the process of escalating its investigation into Apple. The Justice Department has already filed two anti-trust cases against Google, focused on its search and ad tech businesses. Google in December last year agreed to pay $700 million to settle antitrust charges. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sued Amazon and Meta for \u201cstifling competition\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The US Justice Department is reportedly preparing to file a federal antitrust case against Apple for keeping customers locked into\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":24055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1094,284,5858,2490,7400,321,7398,7402,285,7404,7399,124,7405,7401,7403],"class_list":["post-24052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech","tag-amazon","tag-apple","tag-apple-watch","tag-competition","tag-customers","tag-department-of-justice","tag-federal-antitrust-case","tag-high-quality-products","tag-iphone","tag-lawsuits","tag-locked-into-ecosystem","tag-meta","tag-reports","tag-us-federal-trade-commission-ftc","tag-user-experience"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}