Apple could face an antitrust lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice against AirTags and other hardware. Some sources informed Politico that DOJ lawyers are in the early stages of preparing an antitrust lawsuit against the tech giant. Although the DOJ has reportedly expressed interest in Apple’s hardware, there is no guarantee at this point that the agency will follow through on the lawsuit.
The Department of Justice began investigating Steve Jobs’ brainchild in 2019 as part of a larger antitrust investigation into the Big Tech sector. So far, the agency has mainly focused on Apple’s tight control over its App Store and developer payment system. A new potential lawsuit reportedly could go further and focus on long-standing public complaints by tracking device maker Tile about Apple’s AirTags.
AirTags use Apple’s ultra-wideband technology and the Find My network to locate devices, often much more accurately than Tile’s earlier Bluetooth-enabled tracker models. In its congressional testimony, Tile argued that Apple intentionally disadvantaged Tile on iOS devices by disabling its Find My network.
After all, last year Apple opened its Find My network to third-party devices for location tracking, albeit with strict conditions and restrictions that would likely have caused companies like Tile to be forced to abandon their software ecosystems in favor of Apple’s ecosystem. Incidentally, Tile has decided not to agree to this deal.
