Judge allows antitrust lawsuit against Apple to proceed
[July 01, 2025] By
MICHAEL LIEDTKE
A federal judge on Monday rebuffed Apple's request to throw out a U.S.
government lawsuit alleging the technology trendsetter has built a maze
of illegal barriers to protect the iPhone from competition and fatten
its profit margins.
The 33—page opinion from U.S. District Judge Xavier Neals in New Jersey
will enable an antitrust lawsuit that the U.S. Justice Department filed
against Apple 15 months ago to proceed. Neals has set a timetable that
could see the case come to trial in 2027.
Apple has sought to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing the Justice Department
had distorted the contours of the smartphone market and made a series of
other misinterpretations that warranted the case be thrown out.
But Neals decided there is enough evidence to support the Justice
Department's market definitions and concluded the case's key allegations
merited further examination at trial.
The case seeks to pierce the digital fortress that Apple Inc., based in
Cupertino, California, has built around the iPhone, iPad and other
products to create a so-called “walled garden” allowing its hardware and
software to mesh seamlessly for users.
The Justice Department alleges that walled garden has mostly turned into
a shield against competition, creating market conditions that enable it
to charge higher prices and stifle innovation.
The lawsuit “sets forth several allegations of technological barricades
that constitute anticompetitive conduct,” Neals wrote in his opinion.
The judge also concluded the Justice Department had pointed toward
enough areas of troubling conduct that raised the “dangerous
possibility” that Apple has turned the iPhone into an illegal monopoly.
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 In a Monday statement, Apple
reiterated its position that the Justice Department's case “is wrong
on the facts and the law, and we will continue to vigorously fight
it in court.”
The antitrust lawsuit isn't the only legal headache
threatening to undercut its profits, which totaled $94 billion on
sales of $295 billion in its fiscal year ending last September.
Another federal judge in April issued a civil contempt order banning
Apple from collecting any fees from in-app transactions on the
iPhone that are funneled through other options besides its
once-exclusive payment processing system that charged commissions
ranging from 15% to 30%.
Apple also could lose a more than $20 billion annual payment that it
gets for making Google the default search tool on the iPhone and
other products as part of another antitrust case brought by the
Justice Department. A federal judge in Washington D.C. is
considering whether to ban the deals with Apple as part of a
shake-up being proposed to address Google's illegal monopoly in
searc h.
Neals' decision to allow the Justice Department's antitrust case to
proceed came on the same day that Apple was hit with a lawsuit by
app maker Proton amplifying the accusations of wrongful conduct by
the company. The lawsuit, which will seek to be certified as a class
action presenting thousands of developers who have made iPhone apps,
is asking for punitive damages against Apple, as well as a court
order to dismantle its walled garden.
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