Justice Department sues Apple for antitrust violations

The Justice Department on Thursday sued Apple Inc. for antitrust violations, allegedly including preventing rivals from accessing features on its iPhone.

Sixteen state attorneys general joined the Justice Department in the case.

"For years, Apple responded to competitive threats by imposing a series of ‘Whac-A-Mole’ contractual rules and restrictions that have allowed Apple to extract higher prices from consumers, impose higher fees on developers and creators, and to throttle competitive alternatives from rival technologies," Justice Department Assistant Attorney General of the antitrust division Jonathan Kanter said, per The Hill. 

The lawsuit comes after European Union regulators earlier this month fined Apple 1.8 billion euros, or nearly $2 billion, for App Store rules that the E.U. deemed as thwarting music streaming competition. 

The Biden administration appears to be escalating its Big Tech battles with the latest lawsuit after the Justice Department filed another antitrust case last year against Google.

Apple stock dropped before the Justice Department formally announced the lawsuit. Bloomberg first reported the planned case after the market closed Wednesday, and by 10 a.m. ET, Apple shares declined more than 1%, per Google Finance. After the lawsuit was announced, Apple shares fell more than 2.5%.

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