The Justice Department’s top antitrust official said Friday An apple shareholders should encourage the company to “compete on merit,” a day after the government sued the iPhone maker for alleged anti-competitive practices.
“Competition on merit is good for everybody,” Jonathan Canter, assistant attorney general for antitrust, said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
“Good for business. Good for consumers. It’s good for the economy, and ultimately that’s what this lawsuit is all about,” Kanter added.
On Thursday, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Apple, alleging the company used anti-competitive tactics to control the smartphone market. The lawsuit alleges that a significant part of Apple’s ecosystem is designed to get consumers to buy iPhones, even at the cost of more innovative features that would accidentally make it easier to exit the ecosystem.
In a statement Thursday, Apple said the suit “threatens who we are” and would “set a dangerous precedent.”
Experts told CNBC that the case could take years of litigation and that Apple would likely seek to have it dismissed. But in the meantime, these experts said, the bigger risk for Apple and its shareholders is the distraction and scope of the antitrust case, which could potentially shift the executive branch’s focus away from business and toward fighting government claims.
Apple shares fell about 4% on Thursday after the Justice Department announced its lawsuit, and were trading mostly flat on Friday morning.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/22/apple-antitrust-suit-dojs-kanter-has-a-message-to-shareholders.html
