Apple files motion to dismiss Justice Department antitrust lawsuit

The Justice Department and 16 state and district attorneys general alleged in their March lawsuit that Apple had illegally monopolized the smartphone market in the U.S. The government alleged that Apple broke the law by maintaining a closed ecosystem for the iPhone in pursuit of profits at the expense of consumers and innovation. The government cited several examples in its complaint, including allegedly stifling the quality of messaging between iPhones and competing platforms like Android and preventing third-party developers from creating competing digital wallets for the iPhone with tap-to-pay features.

Apple says in the new filing that the Justice Department’s argument “rests on the false premise that the iPhone’s success was not due to building a better product that consumers trust and love, but rather to Apple’s intentional demeaning of the iPhone in order to block alleged competitive threats.” It called the idea “bizarre” and said that antitrust law protects its ability to “design and control its own product” rather than rely on third-party developers.

And Apple says it has granted third-party developers “exceptionally broad” access to the iPhone platform, “while enforcing reasonable restrictions to protect consumers.” Apple characterizes the third-party developers in the complaint not as small upstarts, but rather as “well-capitalized social media companies, major banks, and global gaming developers, all of which are formidable competitors in their own right, and none of which have the same incentives to protect the integrity or security of the iPhone as Apple does.”

Apple presents five main reasons why the court should dismiss the Justice Department’s lawsuit:

Apple is requesting oral arguments to discuss its motion to dismiss the lawsuit. Apple says that if the government gets its way, it would “harm innovation and put consumers at risk of being deprived of the private, safe, and secure experience that sets iPhone apart from any other option on the market.”

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.