The US Justice Department has sued Google and Apple for unfair competition. The attacks are aimed at Google’s search engine and Apple’s iPhone. They remind us of Microsoft’s lawsuit that went viral and became a huge hit.
Last year, the trial began in Washington, D.C., and officials began looking into Google to see if their search engine had been an illegal monopoly. They have only recently started to look into the iPhone’s monopoly. The case against Apple is newer and needs more research, though.
But this isn’t the first time that a tech company has been looked into. Microsoft also had a review like this one, which caused some business to stop for a while. They think that Apple and Google wouldn’t be as big as they are now if Microsoft hadn’t had its legal problems.
Steve Jobs, one of the founders of Apple, filed a case against Microsoft in 1998 for antitrust violations. He called Microsoft’s actions “dirty” and asked the government to make the company “play fair.” Some experts say that this huge lawsuit made it possible for Google and Apple to get ahead in the tech business.
Apple was sued by the Justice Department, which said, “The Microsoft case created new opportunities for innovation in areas that would become critical to the success of Apple’s consumer devices and the company itself.”
Rebecca Haw Allensworth is an antitrust law professor at Vanderbilt University. She said, “It’s not about a plan to go after and destroy companies; it’s about trying to bring competition back to a market.” People may wonder why the US is trying to destroy its most successful companies. The Microsoft case is a success story that can show Apple and Google how to do the same. Microsoft did really well after a big trade case was brought against it.
Experts say that the fact that companies like Google did well during Microsoft’s case shows that these tech companies can make a lot of money by having a monopoly and keeping competitors out. The antitrust cases want to make the tech industry more competitive again.
