US DOJ to sue Apple for antitrust violations, Bloomberg News reports
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[March 21, 2024] By
Ananya Mariam Rajesh
(Reuters) -The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is preparing to sue
Apple as soon as Thursday for allegedly violating antitrust laws by
blocking rivals from accessing hardware and software features of its
iPhone, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.
Taking action against Big Tech has been one of the few ideas that
Democrats and Republicans have agreed on. During the Trump
administration, which ended in 2021, the Justice Department and Federal
Trade Commission (FTC) opened probes into Google, Facebook, Apple and
Amazon.
A DOJ spokesperson and Apple did not immediately respond to Reuters
requests for comment.
It is not clear what the focus of the charges would be, but makers of
hardware devices, like smart-tracker maker Tile, have long complained
that Apple has restricted the ways in which they can work with the
iPhone's sensors while developing competing products that have greater
access.
Apple began selling AirTags - which can be attached to items like car
keys to help users find them when they are lost - several years after
Tile had been selling a similar product.
Similarly, Apple has restricted access to a chip in the iPhone that
allows for contactless payments. Credit cards can only be added to the
iPhone by using Apple's own Apple Pay service.
Apple has long argued that it restricts access to some user data and
some of the iPhone's hardware by third-party developers for privacy and
security reasons.
The iPhone maker has also faced criticism over its iMessage service,
which only works on Apple devices. Critics have complained that the
company has disadvantaged messages sent to and received from Android
phones by shrinking pictures and videos. Last year, Apple changed course
said it will support a new messaging technology called RCS, which has
been promoted by Google as a way to make messaging smoother across
different types of devices.
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The Apple logo is seen hanging at the entrance to the Apple store on
5th Avenue in Manhattan, New York, U.S., October 16, 2019.
REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo
Late in February, Bloomberg News had reported that Apple
representatives met with Justice Department officials in a bid to
persuade the agency not to file an antitrust suit against the iPhone
maker.
A new antitrust suit against Apple would be the third by the Justice
Department in the past 14 years, but it is the first case accusing
the iPhone maker of illegally maintaining its dominant position,
Bloomberg reported.
Apple is also in the midst of an antitrust-related tussle with "Fortnite"
videogame maker Epic Games.
Earlier in the day, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Elon Musk's X and
Match Group joined Epic Games' protest that Apple has failed to
honor a court-ordered injunction governing payments in its lucrative
App Store.
The technology giants behind some of the most popular apps in the
App Store said Apple was in "clear violation" of the Sept. 2021
injunction by making it difficult to steer consumers to cheaper
means to pay for digital content.
The Justice Department has sued Alphabet's Google twice - once under
Republican Donald Trump regarding its search business and a second
time on advertising technology since Democratic President Joe Biden
took office. The FTC sued Facebook during the Trump administration
and Biden's FTC has pressed forward with the lawsuit.
Shares of Apple were down 1.5% at $175.97 in extended trading on
Wednesday.
(Reporting by Ananya Mariam Rajesh in Bengaluru, Stephen Nellis in
San Jose and Chris Sanders in Washington; Editing by Peter Henderson
and Christopher Cushing)
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