{"id":2213497,"date":"2024-04-04T23:45:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-05T03:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-administration-antitrust-efforts-aim-to-take-bite-out-of-apple\/"},"modified":"2024-04-04T23:45:27","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T03:45:27","slug":"biden-administration-antitrust-efforts-aim-to-take-bite-out-of-apple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-administration-antitrust-efforts-aim-to-take-bite-out-of-apple\/","title":{"rendered":"The Biden administration&#8217;s antitrust endeavors target Apple"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbiden-administration-antitrust-efforts-aim-to-take-bite-out-of-apple%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2213497&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The \u200cDepartment of \u200cJustice and 16 state attorneys\u2064 general filed an antitrust\u200b suit against \u2064Apple, accusing the \u2062tech giant of illegally monopolizing the smartphone market. This\u200b action\u2064 signifies a shift in antitrust \u200claw under\u200d the Biden administration, \u2064aiming to scrutinize market \u2062shares more strictly. Apple, in response, \u2062defends its closed ecosystem as a competitive advantage. The case questions whether Apple&#8217;s practices harm competition or benefit \u200bconsumers.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/justice-department\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Department of Justice<\/a> under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/joe-biden\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>President Joe Biden<\/a> and 16 state attorneys general have brought an antitrust suit against Apple for allegedly illegally monopolizing the smartphone market.<\/p>\n<p>The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, accuses <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/apple\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Apple<\/a> of maintaining an illegal monopoly by \u201cselectively imposing contractual restrictions on \u2026 developers\u201d and undermining \u201capps, products, interoperability, and lower costs for consumers and developers,\u201d according to the DOJ\u2019s recent press release.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>(Illustration by Tatiana Lozano \/ Washington Examiner; AP Photos)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>More broadly, the suit reflects a larger shift in antitrust law from officials in the Biden administration and some populist allies on the Right. Since a revolution in U.S. competition law in the late 1970s, agencies and courts have held consumer benefit, known as the consumer welfare standard, and economic analysis specific to the case at hand as key to deciding cases.<\/p>\n<p>But the current leaders at the DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission have sought a return to previous antitrust philosophy involving stricter interpretation of market shares that trigger scrutiny and an expanded view of factors that are considered illegal. That\u2019s led to a more \u201cbig is bad\u201d approach and the incorporating of harms to competitors over harms to consumers.   <\/p>\n<p>Apple is pushing back. It claims its walled-garden approach, differing from Android\u2019s more open ecosystem, provides enhanced ease of use, privacy, and security to users and is its competitive advantage. Apple\u2019s iPhone does not allow sideloading of apps, heavily vets apps offered in its App Store, and sometimes features degraded interoperability with third-party products. <\/p>\n<p>Specifically, the DOJ points to five areas of illegal behavior by the maker of the country\u2019s most popular smartphone: the suppression of so-called super apps, or apps that provide broad functionality to users; cloud streaming game apps; and insufficient interoperability on messaging apps, smartwatches, and digital wallets.<\/p>\n<p>The iPhone enjoys approximately 60% of the market in smartphones in the United States. Smartphones running Google\u2019s Android operating system are Apple\u2019s main competitor, with around 40% of the U.S. market.<\/p>\n<p>Those thresholds were not enough to convince a judge that Apple had a monopoly position in a recent civil trial against the tech giant brought by Epic Games, maker of the popular Fortnite video game. Establishing that a defendant has a monopoly market share is the first step in prevailing in any antitrust trust case.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, Apple responded that the DOJ allegations \u201cthreaten who we are and the principles that set Apple products apart in fiercely competitive markets.\u201d The statement noted that if the suit is successful, \u201cit would also set a dangerous precedent, empowering government to take a heavy hand in designing people\u2019s technology.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the crux of the case is whether Apple\u2019s closed ecosystem is, as the government alleges, a collection of \u201cself-interested business strategies\u201d that harm competition or, as Apple claims, its product\u2019s competitive advantage that benefits consumers who choose an iPhone.     <\/p>\n<p>The Coalition for App Fairness, an app industry group including Epic Games, Spotify, and Match Group, lauded the case. In a statement, it wrote, \u201cThe Department of Justice is taking a strong stand against Apple\u2019s stranglehold over the mobile app ecosystem, which stifles competition and hurts American consumers and developers alike.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Not everyone agrees with the merits or possible consequences of the suit. Patrick Hedger of Taxpayers Protection Alliance told the <em>Washington<\/em> <em>Examiner<\/em>, \u201cApple\u2019s closed ecosystem is one of the company\u2019s key differentiating factors from its competitors, providing consumers a choice of a more secure and reliable suite of devices at the expense of interoperability with other software and devices.\u201d He continued, \u201cConsumers should be free to weigh that trade-off. If the DOJ prevails, consumer choice at the most important decision point in the market, the device level, will be diminished.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>If the Biden DOJ is successful, iPhone users would likely notice changes in the services at issue, but the government requests for relief are open-ended, making concrete changes difficult to predict at this stage.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe green versus blue text bubble issue is effectively a meme that has become a federal case,\u201d Hedger said about one of the more peculiar claims in the suit. The DOJ asserts that users of non-iPhone devices \u201cexperience social stigma\u201d when texting with iPhone users. The government argues that suboptimal integration and a color difference in messages drive \u201cusers to continue buying iPhones \u2014 solidifying Apple\u2019s smartphone dominance.\u201d Whatever the merits of highlighting degraded interaction with outside messaging services, considering \u201csocial pressures\u201d is a departure from the scope of recent antitrust considerations.<\/p>\n<p>Apple indicated it will vigorously defend its closed business model, making a settlement to expedite the matter unlikely. Full litigation of the case is expected to take three to five years.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Joe Biden&#8217;s Department of Justice, alongside 16 state attorneys general, filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple, alleging illegal monopolization of the smartphone market. The complaint, lodged in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, claims Apple maintained an illegal monopoly by imposing contractual restrictions selectively<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2694,"featured_media":2213498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/wb-white-house-apple-antitrust-jessica-melugin-040324B5-1024x591.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2213497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/wb-white-house-apple-antitrust-jessica-melugin-040324B5-1024x591.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2213497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2694"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2213497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2213497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2213498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2213497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2213497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2213497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}