U.S. government sues Apple for smartphone antitrust violations

cbc.ca/news/business/us-justice-dept-apple-1.7150800

The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday announced a sweeping antitrust lawsuit against Apple, accusing the tech giant of "unlawful exclusionary behaviour" by engineering an illegal monopoly in smartphones that boxes out competitors and stifles innovation.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New Jersey, alleges that Apple has monopoly power in the smartphone market and uses its control over the iPhone to "engage in a broad, sustained, and illegal course of conduct."

The lawsuit — which was also filed with attorneys general from 15 states as well as D.C. — takes direct aim at the digital fortress that Apple Inc., based in Cupertino, Calif., has assiduously built around the iPhone and other popular products such as the iPad, Mac and Apple Watch to create what is often referred to as a "walled garden."

Apple has defended the walled garden — meticulously designed hardware and software that can seamlessly flourish together while requiring consumers to do little more than turn on the devices — as an indispensable feature prized by consumers who want the best protection available for their personal information.

It has described the barrier as a way for the iPhone to distinguish itself from devices running on Google's Android software, which isn't as restrictive and is licensed to a wide range of manufacturers.

Antitrust regulators made it clear in their complaint that they see Apple's walled garden most as a weapon to ward off competition, creating market conditions that enable it to charge higher prices that have propelled its lofty profit margins while stifling innovation.

Not sure what the outcome of this lawsuit will be but if it forces Apple to stop manufacturing more e-waste, especially after EU forced Apple to adapt USB-c, it might be a win for the end consumer.

Not too long ago, the US was criticizing the EU for targeting American companies in the Digital Markets Act due to their market monopolies. Now they are suing Apple?

Looks like this timeline is improving.

Cory Doctorow wrote an article about all of Apple's misgivings that lead to this lawsuit:

https : //pluralistic.net/2024/03/22/reality-distortion-field/#three-trillion-here-three-trillion-there-pretty-soon-youre-talking-real-money

The whole article details about how people tend to view Apple as some sort of virtuous company compared to other companies even though Apple is similar or worse in some cases.

An excerpt I found interesting:

And now, famously, the US Department of Justice is coming for Apple, with a bold antitrust complaint that strikes at the heart of Apple exceptionalism, the idea that monopoly is safer for users than technological self-determination:

*www.justice.gov/opa/media/1344546/dl?inline

There's passages in the complaint that read like I wrote them:

Apple wraps itself in a cloak of privacy, security, and consumer preferences to justify its anticompetitive conduct. Indeed, it spends billions on marketing and branding to promote the self-serving premise that only Apple can safeguard consumers’ privacy and security interests. Apple selectively compromises privacy and security interests when doing so is in Apple’s own financial interest—such as degrading the security of text messages, offering governments and certain companies the chance to access more private and secure versions of app stores, or accepting billions of dollars each year for choosing Google as its default search engine when more private options are available. In the end, Apple deploys privacy and security justifications as an elastic shield that can stretch or contract to serve Apple’s financial and business interests.