The US Department of Justice files an antitrust lawsuit against Apple

After years of investigation, competition watchdogs from the US government are taking Apple to court. But the allegations are smaller than some observers expected.

The US government accuses Apple of unfair competition. The iPhone company denied competitors access to hardware and software features of its devices and favored its own offerings, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday by the Justice Department and several states. Apple wants to defend itself. The company was convinced that the lawsuit ignored the facts and would fail.

At the core of the allegations is that Apple ties users to the company’s devices by artificially making other companies’ services less attractive. The lawsuit states, among other things, that Apple hinders so-called ‘super apps’ that can serve as a platform for various services. In addition, the company unfairly protects its iMessage chat service due to poorer interaction with users on non-Apple devices. Apple has also put obstacles in the way for games running on servers on the Internet. Apple denies all these allegations.

Hardly any consequences for users in Europe

Changes in Apple’s operations that the U.S. government might force won’t necessarily affect users in Europe. Apple has just had to restructure its EU operations in some fundamental ways due to the new digital DMA law. For the first time, the company allowed apps to be loaded onto iPhones from places other than its own app store. However, some major app providers, such as music streaming market leader Spotify and ‘Fortnite’ company Epic Games, criticize that Apple has made terms so unfavorable to developers that the vast majority of them would not accept it. Apple emphasizes that downloading apps from other sources poses risks to users that must be protected.

The European Commission recently imposed a fine of 1.84 billion euros following a complaint from Spotify that Apple had hindered competition in the field of music streaming. Of that, 1.8 billion was intended for ‘deterrence’, it was said.

The US government is targeting the next big tech company with competition accusations: the Justice Department has already sued Google and the FTC is taking action against Amazon and the Facebook group Meta. Companies have long benefited from relatively lax regulation in their home markets, but that has changed in recent years. The proceedings in these cases usually take years.

Apple counters

US Attorney General Merrick Garland emphasized at a news conference that the government usually wins cases in which it resorts to legal action. The agency’s top antitrust watchdog, Jonathan Kanter, said they want to ensure Apple can compete again through its own innovations – and not by hindering third-party inventions.

Apple countered that a company is not obliged under competition law to give competitors free access to its technologies. The lawsuit jeopardizes principles that make Apple products stand out in a highly competitive market. It is also a dangerous precedent in which the government wants to dictate how technology should be developed. A government success could make iPhones feel like Android phones.

(hah/hkl/sda/awp/dpa)