Apple may face antitrust suit for AirTags

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has Apple in its sights, as it gathers evidence for an anti-trust lawsuit against the Cupertino, US-based technology giant.

Lawyers for the DOJ are in the early stages of drafting the potential complaint, American news website Politico quoted sources as saying.

The department has been investigating Apple since 2019 over allegations of using its dominant status to keep smaller companies and app developers in check.

The latest development comes in the form of testimony by Tile, a competing technology company, that alleges Apple crippled its lost item finding technology by walling off access to location services and Apple's Find My Network system to its own competing product, Apple AirTags.

AirTags are small devices that can be attached to keys, wallets or almost any other item to locate them but they have run into trouble over privacy concerns.

Tile's very public complaint is one of the many over the years that have alleged Apple abuses its dominant position in the market for the benefit of its devices and software.

Apple eventually did open up Find My Network to other developers but with restrictions that made the service worse on competing devices.

The App Store is another potential "eye of the storm" with many complaints over the years from competing device makers and app developers. The Apple vs Epic fiasco was a very public battle that the company Apple eventually won.

The federal judge had then said Apple was not monopolistic for protecting its interests but it was unfair of it to block access to third-party payments on the app store, effectively funneling all payments through their system while taking a hefty cut from their income.