US government sued Apple for monopoly
In a crusade against large technology companies, the US government sued Apple for monopoly.
On March 21, it was announced that the Department of Justice sued Apple for monopoly.
In the major lawsuit announced Thursday by Attorney General Merrick Garland against Apple, Apple is accused of having a monopoly over its flagship product, the iPhone.
The US government sued Apple and prosecutors have compared the lawsuit to other major landmark antitrust cases, such as those filed against AT&T and Microsoft.
As a result, Apple shares fell 4.09% on the stock market Thursday.
For a company valued at about $2.7 trillion, that’s a loss of more than $100 billion.
The U.S. government sued Apple, and the basis is contained in 88 pages, which has been filed by the Department of Justice and the attorneys general of 16 states before a federal court in New Jersey.
In it, they accuse the tech giant of violating antitrust laws by blocking rivals from accessing hardware and software features of its smartphone.
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US government sued Apple
The US government sued Apple and the company is seen as hindering its ability to offer alternative products and services to those of the Tim Cook-led company itself.
“Apple has maintained monopoly power in the smartphone market, not simply by being ahead of the competition on the merits, but by violating federal antitrust law. Consumers should not have to pay higher prices because companies break the law,” Garland said in an appearance with his team of prosecutors.
On the other hand, they add that this attitude will spread, despite having 70% of the market.
“If left unchallenged, Apple will continue to strengthen its smartphone monopoly,” the attorney general adds.
To date, Apple has a 70% share of the U.S. market for high-performance smartphones.
“Apple has maintained its power, not because of its superiority, but because of its illegal exclusionary behavior” Garland argues.
The lawsuit involves several aspects
The lawsuit not only affects Apple’s lucrative services business, but goes right to the heart of its business model, in which users are part of a network in which they are somehow trapped and dependent on what the company offers them.
If successful, it may involve not only fines and financial compensation, but also far-reaching changes in the way the company operates.
READ HERE: LATINOS CONTRIBUTE TO THE U.S. ECONOMY.
The U.S. government sued Apple and in regards to it, Apple believes the action is wrong “from a factual and legal standpoint.”
“This lawsuit threatens who we are and the principles that distinguish Apple products in fiercely competitive markets. If successful, it would hamper our ability to create the kind of technology people expect from Apple, where hardware, software and services intersect. It would also set a dangerous precedent, empowering the government to intervene forcefully in the design of people’s technology,” he said in a statement.
Among several reasons
According to the DOJ, Apple conducts its anticompetitive exclusionary conduct in several ways.
First, Apple imposes contractual restrictions and fees that limit the features and functionality that developers can offer iPhone users.
Second, Apple selectively restricts access to connection points between third-party applications and the iPhones’ operating system, degrading the functionality of non-Apple applications and accessories.
As a result, for most of the past 15 years, Apple has collected what Garland has called “a tax in the form of a 30% commission” on the price of any app downloaded from the App Store.
If an iPhone user sends a message to a non-iPhone user via its messaging app, that text appears not only as a green bubble, but incorporates limited features.
