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Washington
The U.S. Department of Justice has accused Apple of illegally maintaining an iPhone monopoly by stifling competition and imposing exorbitant costs on consumers.
The lawsuit, also brought by several U.S. states, alleges that Apple raked in hundreds of billions of dollars by making it difficult for consumers to upgrade to cheaper smartphones and devices.
The long-anticipated lawsuit against Apple will put the company, founded by Steve Jobs in 1976, at odds with Washington after largely escaping government oversight for nearly half a century.
It joins Amazon, Google and Facebook owner Meta, who are also facing antitrust lawsuits in the United States.
At the heart of the case is Apple’s alleged exclusionary practices that impose strict and sometimes opaque conditions on companies and developers trying to reach America’s 136 million iPhone users.
According to the complaint, these rules and decisions are designed to force Apple users to stay in the Apple ecosystem and buy iPhones.
“Consumers should not be made to pay higher prices just because a company violates antitrust laws,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland.
“If left unchecked, Apple will only continue to strengthen its smartphone monopoly,” he added.
The wide-ranging lawsuit points to practices that enrich Apple by negatively impacting innovation and technological advancement for consumers.
Apple said the lawsuit is “false on the facts and law, and we will vigorously defend against it.”
The company added in a statement that if successful, the lawsuit would “set a dangerous precedent and give governments greater power over the design of people’s technology.”
The lawsuit accuses Apple of blocking the creation of super apps, portals that give consumers access to services such as messaging, social media, mobile payments, music, photos, and movies all in one place. There is.
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