Ananya Mariam Rajesh
(Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is preparing to sue Apple (NASDAQ:) as early as Thursday for allegedly violating antitrust laws by blocking competitors’ access to its iPhone hardware and software features, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.
Taking action against big tech companies was one of the few ideas Democrats and Republicans agreed on. During the Trump administration, which ended in 2021, the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) launched investigations into Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon (NASDAQ:).
Representatives for the Justice Department and Apple did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
It’s unclear what the allegations will focus on, but hardware device makers such as smart tracker maker Tile have long complained that Apple limited the way it works with iPhone sensors when developing competing products that have greater access.
Apple began selling AirTags, which can be attached to items such as car keys to help users find them if they get lost, a few years after Tile sold a similar product.
Apple has similarly restricted access to the iPhone chip that allows contactless payments. Credit cards can only be added to iPhone using Apple’s own Apple Pay service.
Apple has long said it restricts third-party developers’ access to some user data and some iPhone hardware for privacy and security reasons.
The iPhone maker has also faced criticism over its iMessage service, which only works on Apple devices. Critics have complained that the company disadvantages messages sent and received from Android phones by compressing images and videos. Last year, Apple reversed course and said it would support a new messaging technology called RCS, which Google has been promoting as a way to make messaging smoother on different types of devices.
In late February, Bloomberg News reported that Apple representatives met with Justice Department officials in an attempt to persuade the agency not to file an antitrust lawsuit against the iPhone maker.
The new antitrust lawsuit against Apple will be the third filed by the Justice Department in the past 14 years, but it is the first time the iPhone maker has been accused of illegally maintaining its dominant position, Bloomberg reports.
Apple is also at the center of an antitrust battle with Fortnite video game maker Epic Games.
Earlier in the day, Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:), Microsoft (NASDAQ:), Elon Musk’s X and Match Group (NASDAQ:) joined Epic Games’ protest over Apple’s failure to comply with an injunction regulating payouts in its lucrative app . Shop.
The tech giants behind some of the App Store’s most popular apps said Apple is “clearly violating” a September 2021 injunction by making it more difficult to steer consumers towards cheaper ways to pay for digital content.
The Justice Department has sued Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:) Google twice — once under Republican Donald Trump over its search business and again over advertising technology since Democratic President Joe Biden took office. The Federal Trade Commission sued Facebook during the Trump administration, and the Biden FTC filed suit.
Apple shares fell 1.5% to $175.97 in extended trading Wednesday.