In the past few years, Apple has faced more and more resistance to its corporate practices. This includes things like App Store-related fees, support for third-party payment methods in the Apple Digital Store, and more. Much of this pressure comes from international government bodies like South Korea, but Apple could soon face similar action in the United States.
At least that’s what the Politico report says, based on information obtained from an unnamed source. The same source says nothing has been finalized yet, saying that this is just a “potential”move by the US Department of Justice and that things could change in the future. This means that while it appears that some steps are being taken towards an antitrust lawsuit against Apple, it may not succeed at all.
However, if that happens, the source indicates that the Justice Department could file an antitrust lawsuit against Apple before the end of 2022.
It’s not exactly new waters for Apple, even in the United States. More recently, in 2019, the government launched an antitrust investigation against the company, but this ultimately did not result in any major changes that Apple should have made. This look at Apple’s business practices focuses primarily on the App Store, third-party payment methods, device repair, and more. But this investigation has focused not only on Apple, but also on various large technology companies such as Amazon, Facebook and Google.
This report says that the Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit, if it does move forward, is likely to cover not only the App Store or third-party payment methods, but also include Apple’s control of its own range of devices. The Department of Justice is reportedly trying to find out if this control over the equipment it has released is hurting other companies as well.
In its current form, it seems that nothing has yet been set in stone. But with the end of this year fast approaching, we may hear more about it sooner rather than later.