Apple urges judge to end US smartphone monopoly case

By Jody Godoy

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Apple asked a federal judge on Wednesday to dismiss the U.S. Department of Justice's case accusing the iPhone maker of unlawfully dominating the smartphone market, in the latest Big Tech antitrust showdown.

U.S. District Judge Julien Neals in Newark, New Jersey, heard arguments from lawyers for Apple who said the government's case should be dismissed on multiple grounds and asked the judge to limit the discovery process. Discovery refers to the exchange of information among parties in a case.

"The government has failed to plausibly allege that Apple has monopoly power," said Apple lawyer Devora Allon. 

Prosecutors are expected to say the company locks users in and keeps competition out by limiting interoperability between the iPhone and third-party apps and devices.

Apple has moved to dismiss the case, saying its limitations on developers' access to its technology were reasonable, and that forcing it to share technology with competitors would chill innovation.

Antitrust cases against Big Tech firms are a bipartisan trend. The case against Apple began during the first presidential term of Donald Trump and was filed during the administration of President Joe Biden. 

In other cases, Alphabet's Google was found to have an illegal monopoly in online search, Meta Platforms faces trial on claims that it squelched competition by acquiring upstart rivals, and Amazon.com is fighting a case over its policies toward sellers and suppliers. 

But some claims like the ones at the heart of the Apple case have ultimately failed.

A judge dismissed the Federal Trade Commission's claim against Meta over the social-media platform's restrictions on third-party app developers.

In the Google search case, the judge rejected a claim that Google should have done more to accommodate advertisers on Microsoft's search engine Bing.

Apple cited the ruling in its own case, saying it shows that withholding access to technology should not be considered anticompetitive.

The Apple lawsuit filed in March by the DOJ and a coalition of states takes aim at restrictions and fees on app developers, and technical roadblocks to third-party devices and services - such as smart watches, digital wallets and messaging services - that would compete with its own.

If the judge finds the claims plausible, the case will be allowed to move forward.  

(Reporting by Jody Godoy in New York and David Shepardson in WashingtonEditing by Matthew Lewis and Rod Nickel)