Apple is expected to face an antitrust lawsuit as early as March, with the Justice Department preparing to argue that the tech giant uses anticompetitive practices to protect its iPhone dominance. There is.
The Justice Department aims to file the case during the first quarter ending March 31, three months earlier than previously expected, a person familiar with the impending lawsuit told Bloomberg. That's what it means.
However, the timing may be off.
Top Justice Department officials have not yet signed the indictment, according to Bloomberg sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.
Government agencies have reportedly already met three times with Apple's lawyers to discuss court documents, which could be submitted after a three-year investigation by the Justice Department.
Federal authorities are investigating whether Apple leveraged its various hardware and software products to give the iPhone a dominant position in the smartphone market.
The investigation is said to focus on some specific elements of the tech giant's business. Among them: whether the Apple Watch performs better when connected to an iPhone compared to competing smartphones; and whether Apple is inappropriately restricting competition in its iMessage text service. included.
The Justice Department's claims against Apple allege that the Cupertino, California-based company violated antitrust laws last month when it shut down an application that allowed Android devices to send text messages via iMessage to iPhone users. It is likely that the Beeper Mini will be closely scrutinized.
Beeper supports high-resolution photos and videos, as well as iPhone-only features such as read receipts, group chats, and emoji reactions, but in the weeks following its launch on December 8, Beeper was announced as “intentionally “iMessage delivery was blocked.” Approximately 60% of users
Representatives for the Justice Department and Apple did not immediately respond to The Post's requests for comment.
If an antitrust lawsuit against Apple is filed any time this year, it would be the fourth case pursued by the U.S. under President Joe Biden, who signed executive orders aimed at cracking down on Big Tech companies during his first year in office. A lawsuit will result.
Apple is also embroiled in an antitrust battle with Fortnite maker Epic Games.
Just Tuesday, the Supreme Court allowed a court order to go into effect that could loosen Apple's grip on the lucrative iPhone app store and siphon billions of dollars from one of the world's most profitable companies.
Epic lost its broad claims that Apple violated federal antitrust laws, and the justices also rejected Epic's appeal on Tuesday.
Apple has not publicly commented on the Supreme Court's ruling, but said it would now allow developers to use alternative payment systems in response to the ruling. However, it plans to charge a 27% fee for most digital purchases and 12% for subscriptions. Bloomberg.
Bloomberg reported that early in Epic's antitrust case, the Justice Department said it would wait for the high court's decision before taking action against Apple on its own.
According to Bloomberg, Justice Department officials are also reportedly monitoring how Europe's new digital gatekeeper rules, the Digital Markets Act, which are scheduled to take effect on March 7, will affect Apple. ing.
The law “establishes a narrowly defined set of objective criteria for identifying large online platforms as so-called 'gatekeepers.'” According to the European Commission.
The federation said the DMA applies to companies that “have a strong economic position, have a significant influence on the internal market and are active in more than one EU country.” The company is attractive, but Apple's App Store meets this criteria.
Apple said it plans to make changes to the App Store as a result of the DMA despite the pending appeal, Bloomberg reported.
