US Court rejects Apple's request to dismiss antitrust case

Apple has lost its bit to dismiss the antitrust case filed by the U.S. Justice Department. The lawsuit is on.

Now, you may ask what was the point in even requesting a dismissal. Well, it kind of worked for Meta when the Federal Trade Commission sued it for anticompetitive practices in the social media industry, where a Judge had dismissed the claims and forced FTC to refile the lawsuit.

For those unaware, the U.S. DoJ filed a case against Apple in March 2024, accusing it of monopolizing the smartphone market, by imposing additional fees on developers, limiting the functionality of third-party apps, accessories, which the DoJ had deemed were anti-competitive practices. You can read our coverage about the antitrust lawsuit.

Apple had filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in August 2024, arguing that the DoJ had failed to produce evidence that Apple had acted anti competitively. It had denied that the company had intentionally degraded the experience to block purported competitive threats. Well, that's what it has lost now. Judge Julien Neals wrote that the government's allegations are "sufficient to demonstrate Apple’s specific intent to monopolize the smartphone and performance smartphone market".

An Apple spokesperson told The Verge, "We believe this lawsuit is wrong on the facts and the law, and we will continue to vigorously fight it in court".

Earlier this year, Apple lost its appeal against an antitrust ruling in Germany. It is also facing lawsuits over App Store payment policies, false advertising of Apple Intelligence, and iCloud monopoly.

Apple recently announced changes to the App Store fee structures for developers in the EU, when the European Commission had ruled that the Cupertino company's practices were not compliant with the Digital Markets Act.  On a side note, Proton, the company behind Proton Mail, ProtonVPN, has filed a lawsuit against Apple for violating antitrust laws. Proton says that Apple has a monopoly in the smartphone, app distribution, and payment processing markets.