Apple disputes monopoly claims, cites 'fierce competition' in court
Apple has claimed it isn’t a “monopolist” and “faces fierce competition” in the tech sector in a letter previewing its bid to toss a United States antitrust suit.
In a May 21 letter to New Jersey federal judge Julien Neals requesting a conference ahead of its dismissal motion, Apple’s lawyers refuted U.S. claims that it engaged in anticompetitive conduct by excluding third-party access to its platform and made design decisions that “‘lock in’ users to purchasing iPhones.”
The firm said its alleged anticompetitive conduct “involves Apple making unilateral decisions about the terms and conditions on which to permit third parties access to Apple’s proprietary platform.”
The Justice Department hit Apple with an antitrust lawsuit in March, alleging the firm had a smartphone monopoly that — among other claims — allowed it to restrict features and functions of digital wallets and payments and that its App Store rules choked competition.
The tech firm’s fiat-only payments system has long walled off the use of crypto in iOS apps or made it economically unviable for a crypto app to offer in-app purchases due to a 30% fee colloquially known as the “Apple Tax.”
“Apple has opted to offer users a curated, secure, and reliable experience, in contrast to its competitors’ more open platforms,” the firm argued.
Apple claimed the government failed to “properly define the relevant market or establish that Apple has monopoly power in it,” and Apple’s alleged anticompetitive conduct “occurred in other markets” such as its policies around digital wallets.
“Those products all exist in their own separate markets with their own competitive dynamics, and the Government’s failure to define the proper market for those products is fatal.”
The Big Tech player said the U.S. arguments fail as the Supreme Court “has made clear that a firm’s decisions about the terms on which it chooses to deal with third parties do not constitute exclusionary conduct.“
Apple also rebutted the DOJ’s claim that it has a smartphone market monopoly, saying it “faces stiff competition” from Google and Samsung. The former has the most-used mobile OS and the latter leads in global smartphone sales.
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The U.S. did not make “a factual link” to show that smartphone buyers are being cornered in by Apple’s “design decisions,” it claimed.
“Someone unhappy with Apple’s limitations has every incentive to switch to competitor platforms that ostensibly do not have those limitations,” it said.
Shortly after the DOJ’s March filing, an Apple spokesperson told Cointelegraph the lawsuit could “set a dangerous precedent” and potentially give the government the power to “take a heavy hand in designing people’s technology.”
During today’s lawsuit announcement against Apple for monopolizing smartphone markets, Deputy AG Lisa Monaco expressed that Apple’s anticompetitive conduct must stop.
— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) March 21, 2024
: https://t.co/Cn2hyRFz6j pic.twitter.com/gwEhAKVysH
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Additional reporting by Jesse Coghlan.
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