Apple asks judge to dismiss DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit

Apple is asking a federal judge to dismiss an antitrust lawsuit brought by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and 16 state attorneys general against the iPhone maker, which they allege maintains an illegal monopoly over the smartphone market. 

The tech giant argued in a filing Thursday that it is not a monopolist and that its design choices have not had any anticompetitive effects on the market. 

“Apple has invested billions of dollars to create a revolutionary, cutting-edge product and to distinguish iPhone in a fiercely competitive smartphone market through consumer-oriented features,” the filing reads. 

“This lawsuit is based on the false premise that iPhone’s success has come not through building a superior product that consumers trust and love, but through Apple’s intentional degradation of iPhone to block purported competitive threats,” it continues.  

The DOJ sued Apple in March, accusing the company of maintaining a monopoly over the smartphone market by undermining apps, products and services that would make users less reliant on the iPhone and promote greater interoperability. 

The agency alleges that the iPhone maker has stifled competition by imposing “a series of shapeshifting rules and restrictions in its App Store guidelines and developer agreements” that allow it “to extract higher fees, thwart innovation, offer a less secure or degraded user experience, and throttle competitive alternatives.” 

It has pointed to Apple’s treatment of super apps, cloud streaming services, cross-platform messaging, non-Apple smartwatches and third-party digital wallets. 

However, the tech giant argued Thursday that it is not deterring customers from switching to competitors, such as Google or Samsung.

“Users unhappy with Apple’s reasonable policies on third-party access can and do switch away to competitors’ devices, where those limits do not exist,” Apple wrote in the filing. “This disconnect between the conduct that is alleged to be exclusionary and the lack of any harm in the smartphone market is fatal to the Government’s theory and requires dismissal.”