Since the 2020 lawsuit between Apple and Epic Games, there has been a running dispute between app developers and the tech giant. Developers like Epic Games argued that Apple had unjustly implemented an artificial moat by blocking third-party stores in order to commission in-app purchases through only Apple, which flagged antitrust regulations. In retaliation, Apple sued Epic Games for breaching terms and conditions by trying to bypass the commission and creating separate services that are still accessible to Apple users. In 2021, the Northern District Court of California concluded in favor of Apple. However, the report added that Apple had intentionally broken policies under the California Unfair Competition Law. Epic Games understandably appealed the court’s decision, banking on the admission of Apple’s predatory business policy, while Apple appealed that its terms and conditions were not anti-competitive.
On Jan. 16, the Supreme Court rejected both appeals, allowing the lower court’s ruling to stand. In response, Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games, left the ominous note that “the court battle to open iOS to competing stores and payments is lost in the United States … a sad outcome for all developers.” These court rulings, nevertheless, are indicative of how untouchable this monopolistic tech company is in the eyes of the courts and consumers, despite how familiar the company is with shady business practices.
In 2016, Apple was accused of purposefully throttling the battery life of its iPhones through their iOS updates in a televised trial known as “Batterygate.” After a class-action lawsuit in 2020, Apple agreed to compensate those with older phone models. However, by that time, many iPhone users had already bought newer phones, and yet the company only offered $65 of Apple credit as reimbursement. Almost insultingly, Apple was only forced to pay up to $500 million in damages and in-store credits while also experiencing a revenue increase of over eight billion between 2019 and 2020. Apple was able to profit from this “planned obsolescence.”
Furthermore, the firm has been accused of limiting access to replacement parts for third-party repair shops. As a result, many small and often cheaper shops are forced to buy generic replacement parts from vendors other than Apple. Despite its lower prices, Apple takes issue with the use of “unofficial” parts that, in reality, are often of equal quality or even made by the original manufacturer as official Apple parts.
If a repair was to be made with these parts, Aaron Peranowski, a repair researcher and law professor at the University of Michigan, found that warning messages are used “to scare consumers away from independent repair.” IPhone users are sent messages that their screen or battery is not “genuine,” falsely implying that the repair was somehow faulty.
Even with the numerous allegations of shady practices, people still seem to follow “the Cult of Apple.” Millions still flock to grab their latest iPhones despite the many lawsuits and critiques. Google has repeatedly criticized Apple for relying on young people bullying Android users with their green messages as a social advantage over Androids. These green messages are from the Short Messaging Service (SMS), a largely outdated software that Apple refused to change. The company only recently changed its services to Rich Communication Service (RCS), a cross-platform compatible messaging service that Android phones have been using for years.
In other words, Android users had the short end of the stick that Apple artificially created, and the company only recently decided to change to RCS in 2023. Disregarding the social implications, Apple operates in an artificial ecosystem of Apple, meaning that from the parts to the extensions, everything has to be from “Apple.” The company often relies on technical and illegal blockades, like in the Epic v. Apple case, to achieve its iron grip on the tech industry.
The monopolistic actions of Apple are great for its stakeholders but horrible in the long term as competitiveness dies and people are left to the whims of the great tech company. These big techs are often regarded as humanity’s future. Still, without government-enforced accountability and the responsibility of consumer choice, they can easily continue their lucrative, unstoppable reign at the expense of the public.
