San Francisco, Aug 27 : After slamming Meta (Facebook) as well as Google with antitrust litigation the US Department of Justice (DOJ) is currently drafting an antitrust lawsuit against Apple and alleging that the firm “abused its market power in order to block smaller companies in the tech industry, like app developers and manufacturers of hardware”.According to an article in the Politico Citing sources The Justice Department is “in the beginning stages of creating a possible antitrust suit against Apple”.
“Various groups of prosecutor’s within the DOJ are putting together the pieces of a possible lawsuit and the antitrust division of the department is hoping to begin filing suit before the close of the year.” the report stated.
Both DOJ and Apple did not make any comment on the report.
However the Justice Department is yet to make a definitive decision about “whether or when it is appropriate to take legal action against Apple the world’s most valuable publicly traded company”.
It is possible that “no instance will ever be filed”.
If it is successful this lawsuit, this will be the first antitrust lawsuit filed brought by the DOJ against Big Tech under the US President Joe Biden’s administration.
European antitrust regulators have brought antitrust lawsuits against Apple over its App Store charges and the iPhone’s handling of tap-to-pay technology.
The Justice Department has been investigating Apple since the beginning of 2019 in connection with allegations that it used its market power in order to suppress smaller tech firms.
In May in May, an US judge denied Apple’s request to dismiss an amended antitrust suit filed by the designer of Cydia the app store that is available for jailbroken iPhones.
Cydia developer Jay Freeman first filed a lawsuit against Apple in 2020, claiming that Apple “has illegally gained and maintained monopoly control” in iOS app distribution and payment.
Freeman closed the Cydia store in the year 2018.
Additionally, Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite game slammed Apple for its position that third-party app stores could compromise the security of the iPhone.
In the year 2000 an US judge has ruled in the Epic Games v.Apple district court case that Apple did not have monopoly status in the market it was competing in.
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