Attorney General Josh Kaul, together with the U.S. Department of Justice and 15 other states and district attorneys general, filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Apple.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New Jersey, alleges that Apple has monopoly power in the smartphone market and leverages control over the iPhone to “engage in a broad, sustained, and illegal course of conduct.”
Apple called the lawsuit “wrong on the facts and the law” and said it “will vigorously defend against it.”
The suit takes aim at how Apple allegedly molds its technology and business relationships to “extract more money from consumers, developers, content creators, artists, publishers, small businesses, and merchants, among others.”
That includes diminishing the functionality of non-Apple smartwatches, limiting access to contactless payment for third-party digital wallets, and refusing to allow its iMessage app to exchange encrypted messaging with competing platforms.
It specifically seeks to stop Apple from undermining technologies that compete with its own apps — in areas including streaming, messaging and digital payments — and prevent it from continuing to craft contracts with developers, accessory makers, and consumers that let it “obtain, maintain, extend or entrench a monopoly.”
