Apple is no stranger to legal and regulatory challenges, but things have gone up a gear recently. You can read about some of those issues, like the controversy around sideloading in #MF402, and other previous issues of MacFormat. Those actions were predominately based in the EU. Now, though, the US justice system has its sights on Cupertino.
On 21 March, the US Department of Justice Antitrust Division filed a case in New Jersey against Apple. The 88-page document starts by explaining that “for many years, Apple has built a dominant iPhone platform and ecosystem that has driven the company’s astronomical valuation.”
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It adds that Apple decided to “meet competitive threats by imposing a series of shapeshifting rules and restrictions in its App Store guidelines and developer agreements that would allow Apple to extract higher fees, thwart innovation, offer a less secure or degraded user experience, and throttle competitive alternatives.”
