The US justice department is poised to sue Apple, accusing the world’s second most valuable tech company of violating antitrust laws by blocking rivals from accessing hardware and software features of its iPhone.

The suit, which is expected to be filed in federal court, possibly as soon as this Thursday, escalates the Joe Biden administration’s antitrust fights against most of the biggest US technology giants. The justice department is already suing Google for monopolisation, while the Federal Trade Commission is pursuing antitrust cases against Meta Platforms and Amazon.com.

Apple and the justice department didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

The case marks the third time that the justice department has sued Apple for antitrust violations in the past 14 years, but is the first case accusing the iPhone maker of illegally maintaining its dominant position.

Read: Apple’s walled garden is under attack

The justice department opened the latest case in 2019 under former President Donald Trump. The antitrust division, though, chose to prioritise twin cases against Google, taking a back seat as Fortnite maker Epic Games sued Apple for monopolisation in 2020 and that case worked its way through the federal courts. — Anna Edgerton, Kartikay Mehrotra and Leah Nylen, with Samuel Stolton, (c) 2024 Bloomberg LP