Apple about to be sued by US government, report says

iPhone maker is facing regulatory pressure in US, Europe and elsewhere

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Apple is about to be sued by the US Department of Justice, according to a report.

The iPhone maker is already facing significant regulatory pressure in Europe and elsewhere. But now it is set to be hit by another court case from the US government, according to a report from Bloomberg.

The lawsuit will claim that Apple broke US law by restricting access to the iPhone’s software and hardware features, the report said. That has allowed it to unfairly keep its dominant market position, the lawsuit claims, according to the report.

It is the latest update in an investigation that began in 2019.

In recent years, regulators in the US have looked into disputes including those over whether Apple should make iMessage more widely available and whether it favours its own app stores in an unfair way.

The lawsuit will follow intense scrutiny by European regulators, who have also argued that Apple has exerted an unfair stronghold over the iPhone. That culminated in the EU’s Digital Markets Act, which targets Apple and others with a series of rules intended at opening up tech products and platforms

For Apple, that includes the requirement to allow users to download apps from third-party app stores, for instance. Apple has opposed those changes vociferously, arguing that they will make users less safe.

But it has nonetheless complied with the rules, introducing alternative app stores and other changes. Earlier this month, Apple released iOS 17.4, an update that included many of the changes mandated by the EU’s rules.

Since then, some competitors such as Spotify have argued that Apple is not properly complying with those rules and that it is still unfairly using its control over the iPhone and other products.