Apple Faces Antitrust Lawsuit from Multiple States Amid Strong Growth
TapTechNews, Jun 13th. Apple held the WWDC24 developers conference the day before yesterday and released many new systems as well as the "AppleIntelligence" AI platform. However, while the company's share price keeps climbing and its development momentum is strong, the US Department of Justice is increasingly worried about Apple's dominant position in the market. Now, another four states have joined the antitrust lawsuit against Apple, bringing the total to 20 (plus Washington, D.C.).
According to AppleInsider, the four states of Nevada, Washington, Indiana, and Massachusetts have joined the antitrust lawsuit against Apple. Aside from the additional states, the amended filing contains no other information.
Jonathan Kanter, assistant attorney general for the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice, said in a statement: "We welcome Indiana, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Washington to join the existing coalition and jointly restore the competitive order in Apple's monopolized smartphone market. We look forward to continuing to litigate this important case with these states to bring the benefits of competition to consumers, app developers, accessory manufacturers, and the American public."
TapTechNews noticed that on March 21st this year, the US Department of Justice first disclosed that it would sue Apple on antitrust grounds. The Department of Justice accused Apple of violating Section 2 of the Sherman Antitrust Act in five aspects: restricting the development of third-party apps, restricting cloud gaming services, excluding cross-platform messaging apps, restricting the functions of AppleWatch competitors and restricting the use of NFC functions by third-party services.
The US Attorney General Merrick Garland is worried about Apple's 30% commission charged in the App Store and the exclusion of third-party accessories (such as smartwatches other than AppleWatch). Given that Apple has added support for RCS in iOS 18, but the Department of Justice believes that Apple's platform is not welcoming to third-party messaging services.
Apple responded that the Department of Justice needs to come up with three valid accusations, including the monopoly position in the relevant market, anti-competitive behavior, and the impact of anti-competitive behavior. Apple also stated that the Department of Justice only listed restrictive measures but failed to provide the impacts of these measures. Apple believes that the company "faces fierce competition from mature competitors" and does not have "the market share required to establish or infer market dominance".
It is expected that Apple will file a motion to dismiss the lawsuit by the end of next month, but the case is unlikely to end there. TapTechNews will continue to follow the development of the situation and bring the latest news to everyone in a timely manner.