The US Justice Department has launched a lawsuit against Apple, accusing the tech giant of maintaining an illegal monopoly on smartphones.
California-based Apple is said to have “tightened its grip on the smartphone market… not through product improvement but by maintaining a chokehold on competition – locking its customers into the iPhone while locking its competitors out of the market,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said.
In an 88-page lawsuit, the department said Apple had made it more difficult for competing messaging apps and smartwatches to work smoothly on its phones, simply so it could keep competitors out.
There were similar accusations surrounding super apps, cloud stream game apps, and digital wallets.
President Joe Biden has called for the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission to vigorously enforce antitrust statutes.
Apple said the lawsuit is “wrong on the facts and the law” and that it will vigorously defend against it.
“This lawsuit threatens who we are and the principles that set Apple products apart in fiercely competitive markets.
“If successful, it would hinder our ability to create the kind of technology people expect from Apple-where hardware software, and services intersect,” the company said.
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