| A battle with the DOJ
Outside of Apple's China sales drama, the company is also facing its long-anticipated antitrust fight with the Department of Justice. The lawsuit, which the DOJ filed last Thursday, accuses Apple of illegally maintaining dominance over the premium smartphone market by pushing aside competing apps and devices.
The Justice Department claims that Apple imposes restrictions on app developers, makes it difficult for users to switch to competing platforms, and hinders cloud gaming and so-called super apps that allow users to access multiple smaller apps from one larger platform.
Apple, however, is fighting back, saying in a statement that the suit "threatens who we are and the principles that set Apple products apart in fiercely competitive markets. If successful, it would hinder our ability to create the kind of technology people expect from Apple."
The DOJ is seeking to force Apple to change its business practices, which could mean giving third-party apps greater access to the company's platforms and requiring Apple to expand compatibility with third-party device makers.
The lawsuit could also prove to be a dangerous distraction for Apple similar to how Microsoft's antitrust battle in the '90s stole executives' attention away from emerging technologies like smartphones. If Microsoft hadn't been so invested in its antitrust fight at the time, there's a good chance it would have seen the smartphone age coming as Apple and Google did, and launched its own line of handsets.
European Commission calling In addition to slowing iPhone sales in China and the DOJ's antitrust suit, the European Union's competition watchdog, the European Commission, on Monday announced that it is looking into whether Apple is in compliance with the bloc's Digital Markets Act. In a statement released Monday, the Commission said it is investigating Apple's new app fee structure in the EU, as well as whether it meets user choice obligations related to default apps and the ability to delete preinstalled apps. The Digital Markets Act requires Apple to open up the iPhone to third-party app stores, enabling developers to get around the 30% and 15% fees the company charges for sales through its own App Store. While Apple said it will allow those third-party stores, the company said it will also charge developers a 50 euro cent Core Technology Fee per install per year on apps that have been installed more than 1 million times in the last 12 months. In a statement, the EC said it is looking into whether Apple's new fees defeat the purpose of the obligations of the Digital Markets Act. While Apple is certainly facing a slew of challenges, it's far from down and out. It's still the second-richest company in the world by market capitalization — behind Microsoft — and it's sure to continue to sell millions of devices and services subscriptions throughout the year ahead. Still, for the foreseeable future, Apple could be in for a bumpy ride. | 
