U.S. Department of Justice Likely to File Antitrust Lawsuit Against Apple

The United States Department of Justice is accelerating its antitrust probe into Apple and there is increased likelihood that Apple will face an antitrust lawsuit, reports The Information.

app store blue banner
Citing internal sources with knowledge of the investigation, The Information says there has been a "flurry" of activity as the DOJ has continued to question Apple, its customers, and its competitors about Apple's control over the iPhone. The DOJ sent new subpoenas to Apple's business partners over the summer, and has assigned more staff to the probe.

Specifics have yet to be nailed down, but The Information's sources believe that the investigation will lead to a lawsuit. Apple has been under investigation by the DOJ for two years now, and the probe is part of a broad investigation that has seen the Justice Department looking into Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon.

The DOJ has spoken with Apple critics that include Spotify, Match Group, Basecamp, and Tile, all companies unhappy with Apple's App Store policies and control.

Attorneys involved in the probe will eventually give the Department of Justice a recommendation on whether or not to file a lawsuit against Apple, but no formal recommendation has been made at this point in time, and there's still a possibility that no case will be filed as the investigation is ongoing.

Apple recently came out largely ahead in its lawsuit with Epic Games and the judge decided that Apple had not violated U.S. antitrust law, but The Information's sources say that the DOJ's investigation is broader because it is also examining issues like Sign in With Apple, App Tracking Transparency, and location tracking restrictions, so the Epic loss will not hinder a potential DOJ case.

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Top Rated Comments

tritian Avatar
52 months ago
Meanwhile Facebook destroys democracy.
Score: 57 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DelayedGratificationGene Avatar
52 months ago
Agreed. Stop wasting taxpayer money. There is no antitrust here. Success is not illegal. Apple innovation has created millions of jobs so please stop with the nonsense already.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
WiseAJ Avatar
52 months ago

Good. Apple has a stranglehold over iOS that is LONG overdue for antitrust scrutiny & legislative action. Apple's monopoly needs to end
What monopoly? Apple has no monopoly on any product they sell.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
WiseAJ Avatar
52 months ago

I can maybe see the gripe with Sign in With Apple, but any company that has an issue with tracking transparency or location permissions is not a company you want on your phone.
What's wrong with Sign in with Apple? They only require it if you also use other third party log in authenticators like Log in with Google/ Log in with Facebook. That's just providing the consumer with more choices instead of forcing them to have to use Facebook etc.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Michael Scrip Avatar
52 months ago

Sony had a global monopoly with the Walkman and nobody took action on them.
Did they?

I definitely remember other brands of portable cassette players when I was a kid. I had some of them.

And they could play tapes from any manufacturer. I could record a tape on my Sharp home stereo and play it back in my JVC portable or my Sanyo boombox.

:P
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
WiseAJ Avatar
52 months ago
Whiner's gonna whine. No Anti-Trust to see here. Stop wasting time and government resources on this witch hunt. There are more important people to go after, DOJ, that are actually guilty.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)