US sues Apple in landmark iPhone monopoly case
- The lawsuit, brought by the US Justice Department and multiple states, accuses the tech giant of making it hard for users to switch to cheaper smartphones
- The far-reaching case singled out practices that it said was making Apple richer to the detriment of advancing innovation and technology for consumers
The US Department of Justice sued Apple on Thursday for illegally maintaining a monopoly for its iPhone by stifling competition and imposing exorbitant costs on consumers.
The lawsuit, also brought by multiple US states, attacked the iPhone for raking in hundreds of billions of dollars by making it difficult for consumers to switch away to cheaper smartphones and devices.
The long anticipated case against Apple sees the company founded by Steve Jobs in 1976 clash with Washington after largely escaping US government scrutiny for nearly a half-century.
It joins Amazon, Google and Facebook-owner Meta which are also facing antitrust lawsuits in the United States.
At the heart of the case is Apple’s alleged exclusionary practices that set strict and at times opaque conditions on firms and developers seeking to reach the iPhone’s 136 million US users.
