The United States Department of Justice filed antitrust charges against Apple in June 2024. After a year of appeals, the case moved forward.
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In the months that followed, things remained stagnant as no one seemed ready to give in to discovery requests. The Justice Department complained that Apple denied requests for documents in September, then Apple complained similarly about Samsung in April, and now a joint filing shows more recriminations. In this case, it’s Apple that’s blaming the United States government and the 14 agencies that have been called in to stop the case.
From the filing: “The United States, having filed this lawsuit, cannot avoid its discovery obligations by subjecting Apple to an endless procedural loop. The parties have discussed these issues repeatedly over the past year, but these efforts have not resulted in a resolution. Apple is entitled to obtain relevant, narrowly targeted materials from a small subset of the United States’ own agencies, and therefore Apple respectfully requests that the Court order the United States to produce the materials requested in Apple’s final settlement offer.”
The Justice Department’s arguments can be summarized as “it’s very difficult to provide these documents that are of little importance anyway.” That’s not a strong argument when Apple’s requests seem relevant. If the United States is suing Apple on antitrust grounds, then how the agencies view Apple within the U.S. government matters.
They choose iPhones for government use for a reason, and Apple believes those reasons would counter the antitrust case. The case is already very thin, and federal agencies rely on Apple's technology because of its closed and secure nature.
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As a reminder, here is Apple's response to the five charges made by the Department of Justice:
1. The Justice Department says Apple is stifling the success of “super apps,” despite the fact that Apple’s rules allow and support such apps and indeed a plethora of “super apps” exist in the App Store today.
2. The Justice Department says Apple is blocking cloud streaming games, even though Apple allows streaming games both via the web and in the App Store, where they can stream games directly to users.
3. The Justice Department says Apple is downgrading third-party messaging apps, even though they are widely available and extremely popular on the iPhone already.
4. The Justice Department says Apple is limiting the functionality of third-party smartwatches, even though they can effectively connect to the iPhone, share data to and from the iPhone via a companion app, and take advantage of certain features that Apple has developed and expanded over time.
5. The Justice Department says Apple is blocking access to the iPhone hardware necessary for third-party digital wallets to use tap-to-pay technology. However, Apple has developed and provides a mechanism that protects users.
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These charges were barely credible when they were first made by the Justice Department in 2024, but they are even less so today. Even the smartwatch charge has changed with iOS 26.3 thanks to push notifications to third-party smartwatches.
