The United States justice department has filed what many people think is a landmark lawsuit against apple, one of the biggest tech companies in the world. In the lawsuit, the justice department accused apple of what it calls stifling competition from other phone makers so as to boost its revenue and in the process, illegally monopolize the US smartphone market something which the department argues is very wrong and deserving of a legal consequences.
The lawsuit which was contained in a 88 page document was filed on Thursday in the state of New Jersey with 16 district and state attorneys joining the department of justice in the case. The product at the centre of this lawsuit is iPhone which is one of apples best-selling products valued at $2.7 trillion by the company’s own valuation.
The lawsuit alleges that apple has taken advantage of its more than 1 billion users to manipulate its market share so as to undermine its competitors to its own advantage. Instead of engaging in fair competition with its rivals by offering affordable services, the federal state authorities claim that apple chose to impose a long series of shape shifting restrictions and rules with the view of extracting higher fees from its customers and thwarting innovation. Apple is accused of doing this while offering a less secure and degraded experience to all its clients with the aim of throttling competitive alternatives in the market.
The plaintiff affirms that consumers should not be left on their own to pay higher fees simply because companies have the ability to violate the anti-trust laws. The U.S Attorney general is concerned that if this kind of business behaviour and practice is left to go on unchallenged then apple will continue to strengthen its smartphone monopoly in the market all the at the expense of other competing companies in the business.
This lawsuit is the most ambitious antitrust by President Joe Biden’s administration. The administration promised to reverse corporate consolidation in key sectors like technology which critics say had made it somehow difficult for other smaller players in the market to thrive and compete.
Apple Response to the Allegations against its Products
As expected, apple has come out to vehemently defend itself from all the charges levelled against it and its products by the United States Department of Justice. Apple strongly claims that the allegations against it are wrong on facts and the law.
These allegations come on the back of increased scrutiny from the public and authorities on the company from America and other parts of the globe. Apple which boasts of an annual revenue of nearly $400 billion has long adhered to a strict integration between its products and software an approach which is commonly referred to as the walled garden approach.
The company in its defence of the said approach argues that this approach gives its users a seamless experience something which the DOJ. The department of justice claims that apple has achieved its huge status in the market by partly flouting the long established business rules in the market something which they seek to pursue a reversal on.
