April 28, 2024

ANTI-TRUST TRAUMA: Why the DOJ targeting of Apple is a good thing for America

APPLE AND DOJ HEADS

It’s entirely possible that the vast majority of Americans forgot that the Department of Justice has an anti-trust division, given the dearth of activity in the face of indefatigable corporate greed and the drive toward monopolization across the American economy. But on Thursday, the DOJ showed its teeth in attempting to take a big bite out of Apple. 

The government asserts that Apple has violated anti-trust provisions, specifically in its operations surrounding the iPhone.

To be sure, the DOJ had to be shamed into filing the suit. It joined 15 states that have already filed court complaints against Apple. But now the weight and resources of the federal government are backing the movement.

The lawsuit argues that Apple violated anti-trust laws by maintaining policies and practices created to keep consumers dependent on their iPhones and less likely to switch to the many competitors who seemed hapless in the face of the obstacles Apple set up to make the iPhone the most convenient choice.

Report continues below.

Of course, this allowed Apple to bake in a significant convenience fee in the price of the phone itself.

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So, the DOJ will try to bust up Apple’s iPhone market. Now do the airlines. Don’t stop: do Comcast, and then, Disney. Break Facebook into 20 little baby faces. Turn Google into 12 little Giggles.

Why not get it over with and merge Boeing with Airbus? Perhaps I am the wrong person to approach anti-trust issues with a level head.

After all, it looks to many that all major corporate business plans include placing themselves into a position to merge with others to block out all competition. If you doubt it, go to any mid-sized American city. In nearly every single one, just one clinical care company, or perhaps two, will dominate nearly all for-profit healthcare.

Guess which one dominates New Orleans:

But back to Apple and customers’ reliance on the iPhone. According to The New York Times report, the lawsuit set out Apple’s most gluttonous and unrepentant practices:

“By tightly controlling the user experience on iPhones and other devices, Apple has created what critics call an uneven playing field, where it grants its own products and services access to core features that it denies rivals. Over the years, it has limited finance companies’ access to the phone’s payment chip and Bluetooth trackers from tapping into its location-service feature. It’s also easier for users to connect Apple products, like smartwatches and laptops, to the iPhone than to those made by other manufacturers.”

Wow. Apple’s hold is so breathtakingly elegant in its seamless shell, that it almost looks planned. 

Sorry, this really isn’t funny. That $1500 phone in your 15-year-old’s hand could possibly be sold for $350 — which would still garner an eye-popping profit, but only if there was real competition.

To the average consumer, the lawsuit may come as a surprise. But that’s the point. We are now conditioned to see such monopolistic practices as normal business in modern America. But it was none other than Adam Smith who noted that the state had to regulate commerce to prevent inevitable monopolies which inevitably lead to price gouging.

If one needs a concrete example, look at Mark Cuban’s online pharmacy. He sells common medicines at greatly reduced prices. 

But here’s the real catch. It is not a charity. Cuban takes exactly 15% profit off each sale, the 15% figure that nearly defines a good stable business with growth potential. Yet the monopolies within the pharmaceutical industry make Cuban’s prices seem like a charity.

Cuban did it to shame the pharmaceutical industry. It is the right sentiment but it’s easier to shame a carrot than big pharma.

We are conditioned to accept monopolies, and Cuban set up his pharmacy just to demonstrate how much monopolies and price gouging rob Americans in the name of laughably naked corporate greed.

Though breaking up Apple may seem impossible given the cruise ship full of lawyers that the company will employ to fight the suit, all carrying models of the new iPhone 16 XL-FU, it actually is no more impossible than breaking up the railroad robber barons or Rockefeller’s Standard Oil (both of which did get broken into tiny little competing companies in a prior monopoly-busting era.)

In today’s Citizens United America, where Washington is flooded with corporate cash, it may be impossible to imagine a 21st-century Teddy Roosevelt stepping out of the White House to lead the charge.

And yet, even though President Biden is ethically blocked from commenting on any one case, there is no ethical breach in instructing Attorney General Garland to examine the possibility of being more aggressive with anti-trust suits.

In that way, President Biden could be a new Teddy Roosevelt: a 21st-century trustbuster, ready to “open” America for business in a greener, more fair and equitable capitalistic landscape.

Ultimately, this is about keeping the United States competitive with the emerging new companies that nearly invariably start in other countries due to the oppressive money and power that guard competition in this country. (Think TikTok and how quickly Google would have bought it if it had been birthed here.)

Ironically, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis chose to go to war with Disney over being too gay-friendly, a losing position, a hurtful position, and one he is sure to lose.

But if the right governor asked Disney if it could ever eat enough, whether it was necessary to buy 21st Century Fox, the ABC Network, Lucasfilms (Star Wars!!), Pixar, and Marvel Comics — that governor may have had popular support!

But again, people are simply conditioned to accept monopolies now.

That is why few complain when fuel costs go down but airline fares go up, Comcast can charge $230 a month for cable, banks can include $25 “service fees,” and every movie theatre is owned by the same company (seemingly), forcing you to pay $12.00 for the shopping bag of popcorn you swore you wouldn’t buy, but did the moment you smelled it.

Companies swear they won’t merge into “evil” corporations until they smell the money.

It is normal nowadays. Except normal doesn’t mean acceptable, and it sure doesn’t render us helpless.

We don’t need a “woke” DOJ Anti-Trust Division, we just need one that is awake. Apple may find out that it will be eaten for lunch.

Editor’s note: This is an opinion column that solely reflects the opinions of the author.

Jason Miciak

Jason Miciak is an associate editor and opinion writer for Occupy Democrats. He's a Canadian-American who grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He is a trained attorney, but for the last five years, he's devoted his time to writing political news and analysis. He enjoys life on the Gulf Coast as a single dad to a 15-year-old daughter. Hobbies include flower pots, cooking, and doing what his daughter tells him they're doing. Sign up to get all of my posts by email right here: