Apple is trying to monopolize the smartphone market and control the market through manipulation and abuse of power.
The US government has filed a case against the global tech giant Apple.
According to the lawsuit, Apple is trying to monopolize the smartphone market and control the market through manipulation and abuse of power. As part of this effort, the company is abusing the App Store of its most popular product, the iPhone, the complaint said.
The country’s justice department filed the case in the federal court of the state of New Jersey on Thursday (March 21) local time. The 16-member lawyer team formed by the government to pursue the case, each of the team is the highest law officer (Attorney General) of a state. An 88-page complaint was also submitted to the court on Thursday. It has been said that the company has committed irregularities and abuse of power in at least 5 cases in the overall operation of its business.
It is also said that the methods adopted by Apple to artificially increase the price of its products through market regulation and to prevent others from accessing the hardware and software of its products are not legal.
The US government’s legal team held a press conference after filing the complaint in the New Jersey federal court that day. Attorney General Merrick Garland, one of the members of the team, said at the press conference, “Apple is abusing its monopoly power to ensure the maximum profit by avoiding competition in the smartphone market, which is a crime under US law.” Consumers should not buy products from a company at exorbitant prices, which has no regard for the law.’
Merrick Garland said at the press conference, “Apple never wants an app that is better than the apps in the iPhone app store to come to market. Apple routinely abuses its ‘app review’ process to block the arrival of new competing apps.”
Garland also said that Apple is using such software in the iPhone to keep the smartwatch market under their control, as a result of which it is not possible to connect the iPhone with the smartwatch of any other company except the smartwatch made by Apple’s own company.
In addition, the company is not allowing other financial institutions to enter their tap-to-pay technology services and is unfairly grabbing billions of dollars from the market by monopolizing this service. “Apple is controlling the market for apps, products and services in such a way that users are becoming overly dependent on the iPhone. Not only that, otherwise consumers would have been able to get many products and services at a lower cost,” Garland said at the press conference.
Meanwhile, in a response to the filing of the case, Apple said that it is not involved in any illegal activities and that the company will fight these “false” allegations “with all its might”.
Apple spokesman Fred Scheinz said in a statement, “The case is factually and legally wrong.” Apple will tackle it with all its might.