Department of Justice antitrust filing against Apple said to be imminent, for the fourth c...
A new report claims that the US Department of Justice is in the "late stages" of investigating Apple and a wide-ranging complaint will be filed soon, but how -- or if -- it will all play out isn't actually clear.
Apple has reportedly been under investigation by the Department of Justice for about four years, and to date, nothing has happened. A report on Friday afternoon claims that a filing may happen soon -- or it may not.
The report, by the New York Times on Friday, citing three people familiar with the matter, say that a case may be filed as soon as the first half of this year. This "case filing soon" refrain has been common across similar reports for over five years, however.
Two of the unnamed sources say that senior leaders in the Justice Department are reviewing the investigation materials. The same sources say agency officials have met with Apple officials as recently as December as part of the investigative process.
The December meeting was likely about the tail-end of the Beeper saga, where Apple chose to limit a third party's access to iMessage servers. Ultimately, Beeper took one final action to provide as much bridged access as possible but took no further action.
The report on Friday even claims an imminent filing some escape room.
"No final decision has been made about whether a lawsuit should be filed or what it should include, and Apple has not had a final meeting with the Justice Department in which it can make its case to the government before a lawsuit is filed," the report says.
The report also says that if the Department of Justice decides to take action, it will be determined after it sees how Apple responds to European Union regulations and mandates. So far, it has already complied with the USB-C universal charger mandate, and a deadline for allowing third-party App Stores is approaching in 2024.
Four and a half years of imminent anti-trust action
It's unclear why this report is different than the last several times decisive action by the Department of Justice was said to happen soon.
In early 2023, it was claimed that the Justice Department was drafting an antitrust complaint against Apple. That complaint was reportedly about anti-competitive behavior by as it pertained to the App Store.
In August 2022, a complaint was said to be focused on complaints from tracker manufacturer Tile. That, too, has appeared to go nowhere as of yet, despite sources at the time saying that Department of Justice action was imminent.
Going back to 2021, the Department of Justice was examining how Apple was treating the Roblox developers. The complaint there was similar to Epic's and Apple's commission on in-app purchases and the inability to spin up a third-party App Store. This complaint was also said to be nearing completion, at this point, more than two years ago.
In June 2020, Department of Justice members and a coalition of state attorneys general spoke to several companies who believed Apple engages in anti-competitive behavior. It's unclear where that particular matter went or if it will be folded into a different complaint.
The originating event for this entire saga was in 2019. In October of 2019, the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee had asked Spotify to provide information on Apple's alleged anti-competitive behavior, and specifically how it pertains to Spotify's business. Spotify had alleged that Apple "gives themselves unfair advantages at every turn."
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Comments
Yeah, why would a computer company have to sell their OS to OEMs? There's no law about that. that's like telling a car company, you have to sell your drive train to OEMs, because you're selling too many cars under your own brand.
People are not held to only being able to use Apple devices. I know people that have an Android, Apple and Windows based products and they don't have a problem using it. Sure, we might get certain features, but the main attraction to all devices by one company is usability/ease of use and support.
If a customer wants to switch to another smartphone brand, they can, anytime they want to. no one is forcing them to stick with Apple.
As far as the App Store, it just makes sense for Apple to have their App Store, Microsoft has theirs that serves THEIR platforms, and Google has theirs to serve THEIR platform. That's what customers want. They want EASE of getting, managing the apps they use. The only issue is just battling between the App developers on how much they have to give up for one company to manage the App Store.
They are surely just tracking that iPhone marketshare number. If it rises above a certain number, they will launch the suit. What that number is, is anyone's guess? 65%? Apple is also watching that number and gaming out what policies they should have as well.
Everyone appears quite comfortable with MS owning the office automation and operating systems to the tune of 80 to 90% share. And MS segments Office features such that it pushes and maintains their operating system share, basically since the 1980s.
The only recourse for the DOJ is for the marketshare number to hit some percentage of the market so that Apple could be declared to have monopolistic powers and different rules should apply to them. It's a number they have to convince the court of. Well, the other recourse is legislation.
If Apple has 15% of the USA phone market, nobody would give a crap about how Apple manages the App Store and what limitations they put on 3rd party developers. So, it's a numbers game. Perhaps the DOJ could convince the court that 60% marketshare is enough? It's all going to boil down to a marketshare number.
Apple isn't even close to Microsoft and Intel who together managed to git rid of all but one (Apple) of the vertical computer companies from the 1980's, with Apple being last man standing for now.
Apple is only dominate in smartphones, tablets and watches in the US and Japan, yes they are at the upper 10% of the market in the rest of the world thru making the best hardware/software combo. (and they will never have marketshare like Wintel anywhere).
Apple beat their competition largely thru building a better product, not withstanding fast copying by Google, Samsung and Qualcomm.
Apple owns the Software OS, you own the hardware as is you don't get to copy the software and sell it separately not without the hardware.
Yes, Apple is nearing marketshare numbers in the USA that is hard to believe for a premium hardware vendor. They will need to change policies if that marketshare number goes above 60%. 65% is one of those accepted levels for antitrust actions.
If the USA wants a remedy, they could outlaw subsidies from carriers and have everyone pay for the phone upfront. This in effect rebalances who can buy an iPhone and will increase sales of lower end phones, but it will never pass a court challenge.
if Apple were to open it wide open, it would be bad for everyone. Can buskers lose security protections, apple loses the trust of its customers, developers lose their profits, and the bad guys win. Again. Better to learn from history than repeat it.
So it will happen, but the final word on those charges is up in the air. I suspect it will be pretty limited when all is said and done, but not entirely a win.
Do you have any issues running macOS, that is in the same line of Android and the "Wild West"?