Apple could face a new antitrust lawsuit, now from the US government

The United States government, largely under the Joe Biden administration, has made it clear that no technology company can abuse its power and market position to stifle competition. This position has led to companies such as Google and Microsoft, to name a few, being the subject of investigations to regulate their activities. Next on the list, according to New York Times, it could be an apple.

The above-mentioned media claims that Apple is in the crosshairs of the US Department of Justice. thanks to a closed ecosystem of products and services. The aforementioned body is currently investigating whether Apple is preventing competitors from iMessage or the Apple Watch offering better performance when syncing with an iPhone instead of an Android mobile phone.

Likewise, they’re putting the iPhone’s payment features under a magnifying glass because it’s possible that Apple is blocking specific financial institutions from using them.

It’s worth mentioning that The results of the study are not yet ready. These need to be carefully assessed to determine whether Apple is actually abusing its power to harm competition.

Of course, as part of the investigation, Apple representatives had to meet with the Department of Justice to resolve this issue. As part of normal procedure, a meeting is expected to take place at which the California company will defend its practices. If the presented arguments do not convince the authorities, this may become the basis for a federal antitrust lawsuit.

The US government has long been following in Apple’s footsteps.

It’s worth noting that the US government’s suspicions are not recent. Early 2023 Wall Street Magazine It has been revealed that the Justice Department is filing an antitrust complaint against Apple for abusing its dominant position. It is therefore clear that there has been interest in research into company practices for some time.

Cupertino residents are no strangers to these types of complaints. We must remember that they had a tense battle with Epic Games over fees for recurring payments from the App Store. Owners Fortnite They refused to pay a 30% commission and accused Apple of being a monopolist and not allowing alternative payment methods.

Eventually, people led by Tim Sweeney got the authorities to force Apple to allow third-party payment methods, which allowed developers to avoid fees. Nevertheless, Apple won the biggest victory, as authorities determined that it was not a monopolist..

Obviously, facing accusations from a company is not the same as facing accusations from the United States government itself. As mentioned earlier, technology companies have been treated very strictly in recent years.

Without going into detail, last December Google was fined $700 million for its Play Store monopoly. Amazonfor its part, began the antimonopoly process in September 2023. They accuse him of abusing his dominant market position to eliminate competition.

“Our complaint reveals how Amazon used a range of punitive and enforcement actions to unlawfully maintain its monopoly,” the FTC said in its filing.

So, Apple could be next Big Tech in a court The Americans must demonstrate once again that this is not a monopoly. We’ll have to pay attention in the coming months…