“Things that are legal for regular companies to do become illegal when monopolies do them.”
The DOJ, 15 states and DC sued Apple under the Sherman Act. Apple holds about 60 percent of US smartphones, so the government invented a “Performance Smartphone” market to get to 70 percent. The conduct is real. Apple blocks third-party watches, bank wallets, cloud gaming and super apps, and keeps incoming SMS for its own Messages app. The weak link is the market definition, and Apple’s lawyers know it.