Sources say DOJ and a coalition of state attorneys general are considering an antitrust investigation into Apple's App Store, following a similar EU probe
The Justice Department and a coalition of state attorneys general are taking the first steps toward launching an antitrust probe of Apple …
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple's App Store has been under antitrust scrutiny abroad before Washington moved: the EU opened a probe in 2019 after Spotify's fee complaint (the EU's App Store investigation was triggered directly by that complaint), and the UK and Germany followed with their own inquiries into App Store terms and pre-installed apps. The Politico report marks the moment US enforcers join the queue, with the DOJ and a coalition of state attorneys general taking first steps toward a probe.
The arc since then validates the report's significance: the DOJ progressed to drafting a potential antitrust complaint against Apple by 2022, and by early 2024 sources pointed to a suit targeting the company's strategies for protecting iPhone dominance (the potential DOJ lawsuit). This 2020 report is the starting gun for that escalation.
First-order effects
- Apple now faces parallel antitrust scrutiny from Brussels, London, Berlin, and potentially Washington, meaning App Store commission structures and default-app practices are being examined on multiple fronts at once.
Second-order effects
- A multi-jurisdictional probe raises the cost of defending App Store rules everywhere: developers like Spotify gain leverage as regulators compare findings, and Apple risks divergent remedies across markets if each probe lands differently.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds toward a formal US complaint, platform gatekeeping — commissions, pre-installed apps, and control over app distribution — shifts from a business-model question to a regulatory one, with Apple forced to justify closed-distribution economics across jurisdictions.
The trend: App Store gatekeeping is moving from private developer complaints to coordinated state-level antitrust enforcement, with the US joining a widening international front against Apple.