The U.S. government sued Apple on Thursday, saying the tech giant illegally maintained its iPhone monopoly by stifling competition and imposing high costs on consumers, the latest in a series of legal headaches facing the company.
Here are the key allegations surrounding its recent major legal disputes:
Confrontation with Epic Games
Video game publisher Epic Games has spent years fighting in court and engaging with authorities to force Apple and Google to open their mobile operating systems, iOS and Android, which are installed on the vast majority of smartphones, to stores. ) allows downloading of alternative applications.
Purpose: To terminate user purchase commissions.
Two years ago, a U.S. federal judge ordered Apple to allow publishers to offer users alternative payment methods, while claiming that Epic failed to prove it violated competition laws.
But Epic, with support from other internet giants such as Microsoft and Meta, accused Apple of not respecting the decision, according to the text of a class-action filing sent to a California court on March 20.
Apple has proposed a solution that would allow it to charge between 12% and 27% of the fee for out-of-store purchases, which is only a slight decrease from what it charges on the App Store.
Epic Games has also taken Apple (and Google) to court in Australia over similar grievances. The trial begins Monday and is expected to last five months.
In the eyes of the EU
The European Commission fined Apple 1.8 billion euros ($1.9 billion) on March 4 after music streaming platform Spotify filed a lawsuit against it for blocking European users from accessing alternative, cheaper music streaming services. Service information.
In Brussels’ view, Apple has imposed restrictions that prevent app developers from promoting “alternative and cheaper products outside the Apple ecosystem” to iPhone and iPad users in support of its own Apple Music service.
Apple decided to appeal the verdict.
The company’s situation has become more complicated since Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) regulations came into effect on March 7.
This historic arsenal of legislative power has forced the world’s six largest companies, including Apple, to open their platforms to competition.
Apple has announced that its European users will soon be able to download apps directly from the website.
France eases appeal burden
In 2020, the French Competition Authority ordered Apple to pay a record anti-competitive fine of 1.1 billion euros to the French company on the grounds of anti-competitive cooperation with Amazon Spain in distributing Apple-branded products. 2023.
Similar Italian authorities fined Amazon and Apple 200 million euros in 2021 for restricting some Apple product dealers from accessing the Amazon platform.
British developers join
Apple faces further litigation in the UK over App Store fees, with damages worth up to 785 million pounds ($995 million). The company allegedly charges high and unfair commissions of up to 30% to third-party developers when they purchase apps on its app store.
Russia was also fined
In January this year, Apple was fined $13.6 million in Russia for violating competition laws regarding in-app payments.
Last year alone, Apple was fined approximately $11.1 million for allegedly abusing its dominant position in the mobile app market.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
