The Justice Department & 16 State AGs Sue Apple in Order to Improve the Internet Economy for Businesses & Consumers

WASHINGTON - In an landmark lawsuit today, the Department of Justice announced it is suing Apple for a wide range of unfair competition practices and its monopoly over smartphone markets and applications.  

Open Markets Executive Director Barry Lynn responded with the following statement:  

“The Justice Department and 16 state attorneys general have once again shown up for America’s consumers and independent businesses, and the protection of our personal liberties and democratic rights, by taking on one of the world’s largest corporations.  

“For more than a decade, Apple has engaged in unfair competition designed to entrench its monopoly control in the smartphone market and in multiple closely related marketplaces such as wireless apps. By deploying a complex suite of intertwined practices that collectively restrict the availability of alternative services, Apple stifled the development of rival businesses, reduced consumer choice, imposed higher prices for consumers and developers, and piled up vast wealth for a tiny collection of people. In recent years, Apple has also increasingly engaged in conduct designed to restrict access to essential communications and entertainment markets in ways that further only its own private interests.  

“Today’s groundbreaking lawsuit seeks to fully pry open Apple’s restrictive practices so that fair competition can thrive in ways that deliver the public real choice and opportunity, and improve the quality of both hardware and software products.” 

###