Apple Files Motion to Dismiss DOJ Antitrust Suit

The DOJ and 16 state and district attorneys general alleged in their March lawsuit that Apple illegally monopolized the U.S. smartphone market. The government alleged that Apple violated the law by maintaining a closed iPhone ecosystem in pursuit of profits and at the expense of consumers and innovation. The government pointed to several examples in its complaint, including the alleged suppression of messaging quality between iPhones and competing platforms like Android, and the prevention of third-party developers from creating competing digital wallets for the iPhone with tap-to-pay functionality.

Apple claims in a new document that the DOJ’s argument “is based on the false premise that the success of the iPhone came not from building a superior product that consumers trust and love, but through Apple’s intentional degradation of the iPhone to block supposed competitive threats.” It calls this idea “bizarre” and says antitrust law protects its ability to “design and control its own product” rather than relying on third-party developers.

And Apple claims it gave third-party developers “exceptionally broad” access to the iPhone platform, “while also imposing reasonable limitations to protect consumers.” Apple characterizes the third-party developers at issue in the complaint not as small upstarts but rather as “well-capitalized social media companies, large banks and global game developers, all of whom are formidable competitors in their own right and none of which have the same incentives to protect the integrity or security of the iPhone that Apple has.”

Apple lays out five main reasons why it says the court should dismiss the DOJ lawsuit:

Apple requests oral arguments to debate its motion to dismiss the case. Apple says that if the government gets its way, it will “harm innovation and risk depriving consumers of the private, safe and secure experience that sets iPhone apart from every other option on the market.”

The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.