Apple, a global smartphone manufacturer, is facing hardships. While being sued by the U.S. Department of Justice for allegedly abusing its monopoly market position, iPhone consumers filed a complaint against Apple for the same reason.
iPhone owners in California and New Jersey have filed three class actions against Apple. They claimed that Apple “inflated product prices through anti-competitive behavior.”
The lawsuit, which represents millions of consumers, is the same reason that the U.S. Department of Justice filed a complaint in federal court in New Jersey with the attorneys general of 16 states on the 21st, saying, “Apple has blocked other companies from downloading services such as messaging apps, digital wallets, and other items on iPhones in the smartphone market.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland argued that Apple has been generating revenue by controlling developers and consumers by abusing its control over iPhone application distribution, or monopoly market position. Apple has a 65 percent share in the U.S. smartphone market.
Steve Berman, a lawyer in charge of iPhone consumer litigation, told Reuters, “We are pleased that the Department of Justice has agreed to our approach.” Separately, Hagen Berman, a lawyer at the law firm Sobol Shapiro, previously filed a separate lawsuit from Apple over e-book pricing and app store policies and received a settlement of $550 million.
Apple is also suffering from anti-trust regulations in Europe. The European Commission will announce its final results within 12 months after examining whether Apple’s new policies comply with the Digital Markets Act. Earlier this month, the European Commission fined Apple 1.84 billion euros for violating anti-trust laws by making it difficult for its competitors to provide music streaming services on iPhones, which Apple appealed.
JENNIFER KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
