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Nevada joins Justice Department lawsuit against Apple

Posted on by darion

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) – Nevada is one of four states joining the Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against Apple.

According to the complaint, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, the Department of Justice accuses Apple of illegally maintaining a smartphone monopoly by imposing contractual restrictions on developers and blocking their critical access points.

“Apple undermines applications, products and services that would otherwise reduce users’ reliance on iPhone, promotes interoperability, and lowers costs for consumers and developers,” the department says. “Apple is using its monopoly power to extort more money from consumers, developers, content creators, artists, publishers, small businesses and resellers, among others.”

Some examples mentioned in the complaint include:

  • Blocking super apps
  • Bypassing the mobile cloud streaming service
  • Excludes cross-platform messaging applications
  • Reduced functionality of non-Apple smartwatches
  • Restricting third-party digital wallets

The complaint also states that Apple “covers itself in a cloak of consumer privacy, security and preference to justify its anticompetitive conduct” and that Apple “selectively violates privacy and security interests when it is in its own financial interest to do so.”
In a press release, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said that by violating federal antitrust law, “Apple will only strengthen its smartphone monopoly.”

As of Tuesday morning, 20 states are involved in the lawsuit.

Last month, Apple sent a letter to U.S. District Judge Julien X. Neals asking him to dismiss the lawsuit.

Apple claims that “far from being a monopoly, Apple faces fierce competition from established competitors, and the complaint does not allege that Apple is able to charge supra-competitive prices or limit production of the alleged smartphone markers.”

You can read the full text of the complaint below.

The US Department of Justice files a lawsuit against Apple By jarah.wright on Scribd