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The Department of Justice and more than a dozen states have filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple. The lawsuit claims that Apple has abused its market power and undermined rivals by preventing them from accessing the hardware and software features of its products, such as the iPhone and Apple Watch.
The Justice Department argues that Apple's restrictive business practices have prevented innovation and increased prices by forcing users and developers to use its own tightly controlled system.
"Apple undermines apps, products, and services that would otherwise make users less reliant on the iPhone," the Justice Department said in a press release. "Apple exercises its monopoly power to extract more money from consumers, developers, content creators, artists, publishers, small businesses, and merchants, among others."
Apple is the final company named in a 2020 House report that found several other tech giants, including Amazon, Meta, and Google, have "monopoly power."
The government has previously filed antitrust lawsuits against those three companies. While the Meta lawsuit was thrown out, the antitrust suits against Amazon and Google remain ongoing.