In my column about Apple’s response to the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), I noted that North America could serve as a control to evaluate the effects, if any, of Apple’s changes to iOS in Europe. That experiment may be cut extremely short depending on the outcome of a lawsuit announced by the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the attorneys general of 16 states.
Like the DMA, the DoJ lawsuit could result in Apple making many changes to how the iPhone works, but there are significant differences between the two actions. First, the DMA was legislation that applied consistently to several tech giants with large user bases, including Apple’s rival app store incumbent Google. Indeed, Apple spent much of its lobbying energy prior to the act’s passage arguing that it did not classify as a “gatekeeper” under the act. In contrast, the DoJ lawsuit is antitrust litigation aimed expressly at Apple, with its details tailored to Apple’s products and services. The complaint names at least 11 Apple products beyond the iPhone that it sees as key tools within its ecosystem.
