Posted on 03/21/2024 8:33:24 AM PDT by bitt
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Thursday announced a sweeping antitrust lawsuit against Apple, accusing the tech giant of engineering an illegal monopoly in smartphones that boxes out competitors and stifles innovation.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New Jersey, alleges that Apple has monopoly power in the smartphone market and uses its control over the iPhone to “engage in a broad, sustained, and illegal course of conduct.”
The lawsuit — which was also filed with 16 state attorneys general — is the latest example of the Justice Department’s approach to aggressive enforcement of federal antitrust law that officials say is aimed at ensuring a fair and competitive market, even as it has lost some significant anticompetition cases.
Apple called the lawsuit “wrong on the facts and the law” and said it “will vigorously defend against it.”
President Joe Biden has called for the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission to vigorously enforce antitrust statutes. The increased policing of corporate mergers and business deals has been met with resistance from some business leaders who have said the Democratic administration is overreaching, but it’s been lauded by others as long overdue.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Boeing “is a monopoly,” because AirBus cannot take a Boeing and install an AirBus cockpit. Boeing, theresupon, being expected to sell the aircraft as a mutt.
Ford “is a monoply,” because Kubota cannot install tractor wheels on a Ford F-150. Ford, thereupon, being expected to sell the truck as a mutt.
And Vice Verse… starting with the original Android phones back in 2010.
Nor is Apple by any stretch a monopoly. Here is the data as of the fourth quarter 2023, the latest currently available, on iPhone sales worldwide which proves that:
iOS has not reached 25% of the world market, but Merrick Garland and the DOJ has decided that less than one quarter share is a “monopoly”!
There’s a zillion alternatives for everything Apple offers from the iPhone itself to apps people can choose to use on it like apple music (spotify, pandora, etc.). This is just pathetic. And the lawsuit includes things like iMessage not being on other devices, game streaming, and other minor crap. One doesn’t have to like Apple to think this is just political.
Dang straight it is just too hard to say call mom.
Think of the millions spent on government and Apple lawyers in this waste and all that cost will be paid by us for this fiasco.
That 61% market share was hard won but only in the United States and only recently. In the world market share, Apple has not topped 25%. So the facts do not support a finding of monopoly which has traditionally been a 90% or higher market share. The DOJ though found that Apple had a monopoly before in ebooks before they even STARTED selling them when Amazon which had a 90% plus market share in ebooks brought a complaint against Apple for daring to open a new ebook store with an option for authors to set a range of prices for their work when Amazon was setting prices at $9.99. Apple wanted AUTHORS to choose prices at either $9.99, $14.99, or at $29.99 for more complex works in the ebook market. Amazon accused Apple of PRICE FIXING and a Federal Judge found Apple guilty of AntoTrust and imposed a fine and put a monitor on the entire Apple business to prevent anti-competitive practices at the behest of the ACTUAL monopoly business. That judge ruled, when Apple claimed that Amazon was the true monopolistic price setter, that Amazon was not. Remember, this suit was brought before Apple sold a single ebook. The lawsuit continued while Apple had less than a 10% market share. So reality does not matter to these Leftist Judges.
Apple definitely has a monopoly on the smart phone business. Except for all those other smart phone companies out there.
Justice department going after any company with money?
A brand new iPhone SE from Apple starts at $429. So even that was a mis-representation from Merrick Garland when he claimed that Apple IPhones cost $1600 and that Apple forces people to make their relatives buy an iPhone so they can send them anything but a grainy video. That, also, is false.
😊
Its not a monopoly. Its a duopoly between Apple and Google. Both are evil and need to be busted into a million pieces - GOOGLE ESPECIALLY. By “Google” I of course mean Alphabet which includes Youtube.
They don’t like our privacy, what little we have left.
Bunch of leftists at DOJ are once again attacking the market leaders and trying to push us towards that Linux crap.
Nope I’m completely in touch. Everyone knows why Macs all of the sudden became a huge dev platform...iPhone.
Actually, Apple is the top dog in the China scramble for market share in the last market share statistics with 17.3% among literally hundreds of makers in the China market. Admittedly that is lower than 2022’s 20.2% top position, but the market overall is down 5% year over year.
C’mon, Man, Merritt is only doing what he was told to do.
The SCOTUS found it in two 1937 cases that the Preamble’s “Promote the General Welfare phrase” allowed the Constitution with Congressional Acts with the Presidential approval to do almost anything that “promoted the general welfare.” Once that horse was out of the stall and escaped the barn, everything “promoted the general welfare” including anything an imaginative leftist could come up with that benefited anyone any where or the government or the state, or an imaginary benefit could be justified. It first of all found that Social Security taxes and payments promoted the general welfare.
Most mobile phones aren’t iPhones, not even close. They may have some monopolistic practices respective to inside their own Play Store - but that is different than a monopoly on what phones people have.
It will come back. Over time, it does. Two months ago it was at 195, and has fallen since. It is now where it was at last November. Last July was at 195. It goes up and down, but over time goes up. (Owned Apple stock for last couple decades.)
Huh? For years I've been able to say "Call my wife" or "Call home" on both my Watch and iPhone, very easy. Just use Siri.
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