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Tech

Biden administration ‘in early stages’ of suing Apple for alleged antitrust violations: report

By
Ariel Zilber
Published Aug. 26, 2022
Updated Aug. 26, 2022, 2:33 p.m. ET

The Justice Department is reportedly in the “early stages” of drafting an antitrust lawsuit against Apple.

The news site Politico cited “a person with direct knowledge of the matter” as saying that antitrust investigators are nearing a key “decision point” at which time they will have to choose whether to file what would be a significant action against one of the world’s most powerful tech companies.

The report said that a lawsuit could be filed sometime before the end of this calendar year.

The individual cited by Politico cautioned that no decision has been made whether to proceed with a lawsuit — leaving open the possibility that the government will take no action whatsoever.

The Justice Department has been probing the iPhone maker since 2019. The company is alleged to have used its market power to maintain an unfair competitive advantage over smaller app and hardware developers.

Tech behemoths like Apple, Google, Amazon and Facebook have come under increasing scrutiny from DOJ, Congress and the Federal Trade Commission for alleged business practices that some deem monopolistic.

Amazon recently accused the FTC of “harassing” current and former top executives — among them CEO Andy Jassy and his predecessor, Jeff Bezos — during its probe of allegations that that the company misled consumers into signing up for its Prime membership.

The Justice Department has been probing alleged antitrust violations by Apple.
The Justice Department has been probing alleged antitrust violations by Apple. AFP via Getty Images

In 2020, the Trump Justice Department and Republican-led states filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google over a range of alleged antitrust violations, among them exploiting the search engine’s dominance in the market to stifle competition.

Apple is already facing legal challenges abroad.

Earlier this year, the European Union, which has notoriously stricter regulations over businesses, alleged that Apple “abused” its dominant position in the smartphone market to unfairly boost Apple Pay over other mobile payment systems.

The EU had been investigating Apple Pay since June 2020. 

Apple CEO Tim Cook has been lobbying Congress not to pass antitrust legislation targeting large tech companies, saying that the bills would stifle American innovation.

In April, Cook sounded the alarm as lawmakers in the US and Europe weighed bills that would require Apple to let users download apps from third-party app stores — a process known as “sideloading.”