Consumers sue Apple, taking page from US Justice Department lawsuit

Apple has been hit with a flurry of fresh consumer complaints accusing the iPhone maker of monopolizing the smartphone market, piggybacking on a sweeping antitrust case lodged by the U.S. Justice Department and 15 states final week.

Not much less than three proposed class actions had been filed since Friday in California and New Jersey federal courts by iPhone house owners who announce Apple inflated the tag of its merchandise by method of anticompetitive behavior.

The complaints, in the hunt for to signify hundreds and hundreds of clients, judge the Justice Department’s claims that Apple violated U.S. antitrust law by suppressing technology for messaging apps, digital wallets and varied objects that will trust elevated competition in the marketplace for smartphones.

Apple has denied the authorities’s allegations. The Cupertino, California-based fully firm did now no longer in an instant respond to a seek files from for commentary on the consumer complaints.

Attorney Steve Berman, whose law agency Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro filed one of many brand new cases, notorious that his agency had earlier sued Apple for allegedly thwarting competition for its Apple Pay cell pockets.

“We’re ecstatic that the DOJ (Department of Justice) concurs with our formula,” Berman acknowledged.

Attorneys insensible the diverse new cases did now no longer in an instant respond to requests for commentary.

Apple is already combating non-public complaints powerful its replace practices as anticompetitive. A settle in February dominated that Apple need to face a class action on behalf of hundreds and hundreds of clients claiming it monopolized the marketplace for iPhone apps. Apple denies the claims.

Hagens Berman beforehand secured a mixed $550 million in settlements from Apple in separate cases associated to its e book pricing and app retailer insurance policies.

A 2022 witness by a University of Buffalo law college professor came across that non-public antitrust class actions can customarily wander farther than authorities cases, expanding “the scope of wrongdoing, the amount of restoration, or the choice of defendants enthusiastic.”