Apple in early settlement talks with US DOJ over antitrust case, Bloomberg News reports

July 17 (Reuters) – Apple and the U.S. Department of Justice are in early discussions about settling a 2024 lawsuit that alleges the iPhone maker violated antitrust laws, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

Apple and the DOJ did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment. Reuters could not independently verify the report.

The discussions are active, but there is no guarantee that the two sides will reach an agreement, the report said, adding that the iPhone maker has made multiple offers to the DOJ to bring the case to a close.

The department and 15 states sued Apple in 2024 as the government cracks down on Big Tech, alleging the iPhone maker monopolized the smartphone market, hurt smaller rivals and drove up prices.

In the lawsuit, the U.S. had accused Apple of making it harder for consumers to block competitors and cited five examples where Apple used mechanisms to suppress technologies that would have increased competition among smartphones: so-called super apps, cloud stream game apps, messaging apps, smartwatches and digital wallets.

It could not be learned whether the state attorneys general were engaged in settlement talks, according to the report.

Shares of Apple were down 1.1% in afternoon trading on Friday. They have risen about 23% this year.

The report comes days after Apple sued OpenAI and two former employees, alleging misappropriation of its trade secrets to benefit the ChatGPT-owner’s foray into consumer hardware, a dramatic escalation of already simmering tension between the two companies.

(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)