DOJ sues Apple

Apple has been taking some heat recently from regulators in Europe and the US. The most recent allegation has come from the US Department of Justice (DOJ) who have filed a civil lawsuit against Apple suggesting that they have monopolised the smartphone market by discouraging any innovation that threatens their own business. This has resulted in less choice for consumers, slow competition and increased consumer costs.

The experts think that this will take at least 3 years to play out and many believe that not much will come out of it. Remember that there are current DOJ cases against Google, Meta and Amazon so this kind of thing is not new and not necessarily surprising. The irony is that those three companies own the super apps that are supposedly being discriminated against by Apple's monopolistic behaviour.

Politicians like fiddling with powerful businesses, but the US has a strong legal system that has a bias towards supporting corporates. We are not overly concerned about recent developments. If we were worried about legal issues we would never have urged you to own any of the big tech stocks because there is always something they are in trouble for. That is what happens when you reach the size and scale that they have.

And who knows, if Trump and the Republicans win control of Congress at the end of the year this kind of meddling by federal authorities might be swept aside. My point is, there are so many potential outcomes. Apple is massive and will find other avenues to grow and build their services business if need be, including deeper use of AI applications.

They certainly have the balance sheet to take on these legal cases and potential fines without moving any sort of needle. We advise you to hold your Apple shares through thick and thin, that has certainly been the best advice with regard to this great business over the last decade.