US justice department sues Apple for ‘having illegal monopoly on smartphones’
The US Department of Justice is suing Apple, accusing the tech giant of maintaining an illegal monopoly on smartphones.
The 88-page lawsuit alleges the California-based company is making its products worse for consumers so it can block out competitors.
Attorney General Merrick Garland described the firm’s behaviour as “exclusionary, anti-competitive conduct that hurts both consumers and developers”.
Mr Garland said: “Monopolies like Apple’s threaten the free and fair markets upon which our economy is based.
“They stifle innovation, they hurt producers and workers, and they increase costs for consumers.
“If left unchallenged, Apple will only continue to strengthen its smartphone monopoly.”
According to the justice department, Apple’s net income exceeds the individual GDP of more than 100 countries and it attributes a large part of that to the success of the iPhone.
Apple’s share of the US smartphone market is more than 65%.
Fifteen US states and the District of Columbia have joined the justice department in the first major antitrust effort against the iPhone maker by the Biden administration.
Pic: Reuters
What are the accusations based on?
The lawsuit cites five examples of Apple suppressing technologies that would have increased competition – so-called “super apps”, cloud stream game apps, messaging apps, smartwatches and digital wallets.
Speaking about the digital wallet, Mr Garland said Apple encourages banks to participate but at the same time “exerts its monopoly power” to block them from developing similar products for iPhone users.
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Apple has blocked third-party developers from creating digital wallets on the iPhone that use “tap-to-pay”, instead forcing users to share personal information with Apple instead of just their bank, he said.
“When an iPhone user puts a credit or debit card into Apple Wallet, Apple inserts itself in a process that could otherwise occur directly between the user and card issuer,” he added.
“This introduces an additional potential point of failure for the privacy and security of Apple users.
“And that is just one way in which Apple is willing to make the iPhone less secure and less private in order to maintain its monopoly power.”
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Talking about the messaging app, Mr Garland said that, if an iPhone user messages a non-iPhone user through Apple Messages, the text is only a green bubble, it is not encrypted, videos are pixelated, and users cannot edit messages or see typing indicators.
“As a result, iPhone users perceive rival smartphones as being lower quality because the experience of messaging friends and family who do not own iPhones is worse – even though Apple is the one responsible for breaking cross-platform messaging,” Mr Garland said.
“And it does so intentionally.”
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What has Apple said?
Apple said the lawsuit is “wrong on the facts and the law” and that it will vigorously defend against it.
“This lawsuit threatens who we are and the principles that set Apple products apart in fiercely competitive markets.
“If successful, it would hinder our ability to create the kind of technology people expect from Apple – where hardware software, and services intersect.”
Apple shares were down 3.5% in US morning trading.
Apple is also in the firing line in Europe where, along with Meta and Alphabet’s Google, it is expected to face the scrutiny of the European Commission.
The commission is likely to announce investigations in the coming days into whether the companies have breached Europe’s Digital Markets Act, Reuters reported.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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Will Trump address parliament on UK state visit?
This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
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Who is being targeted in Trump’s immigration raids?
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
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Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
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In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Will Trump address parliament on UK state visit?
This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
Read more from Sky News:
Kate’s ’emotional’ words for tearful tennis star
Music festival cancelled as headliner pulls out
Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
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