DOJ accuses Apple of monopoly in antitrust lawsuit
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – The Justice Department announced Thursday that they are suing Apple in an antitrust case, saying that the iPhone maker has a monopoly over the phone market that harmed consumers, developers and rival companies.
"Consumers should not have to pay higher prices because companies break the law," said U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Garland claims Apple is blocking rival companies from accessing hardware and software features of its phones.
"If left unchallenged, Apple will only continue to strengthen its smartphone monopoly. But there's a law for that," Garland said.
The DOJ accuses Apple of limiting the function of third-party software and smartwatches and reducing the quality of messaging between iPhones and other smartphones.
"We allege that Apple has consolidated its monopoly power not by making its own products better, but by making other products worse," Garland said.
Carl Szabo with NetChoice disagrees with the lawsuit and says the DOJ will have a hard time proving that consumers were harmed.
"It's not about protecting consumers. It's advancing the power and weaponization of antitrust law by the government against businesses that they may not like," Szabo said.
Szabo believes the DOJ's lawsuit will hurt innovation.
"It wants the dumbest of phones for all of us and says somehow that that is pro-consumer when it is anything but," Szabo said.
Apple calls the lawsuit wrong on the facts and the law and says it plans to vigorously defend against it.