The Department of Justice has a preference for settling antitrust cases rather than fighting them out in court, and that posture is now casting a long shadow over active litigation against Apple and Visa.
Two big cases, one new lens
The DOJ filed a civil antitrust lawsuit against Apple on March 21, 2024, joined by 16 states. The government’s core allegation is that Apple illegally maintained monopoly power over the smartphone market through a series of restrictive practices tied to the iPhone ecosystem.
Six months later, on September 24, 2024, the DOJ turned its attention to Visa, accusing the payments giant of monopolizing the debit card market through exclusionary contracts that effectively blocked rival platforms, including Apple Pay, from gaining meaningful ground.
Visa’s legal team tried to get the case thrown out. That attempt failed in June 2025, when a motion to dismiss was denied. Fact discovery has not yet begun, and no trial date has been set for the Visa matter.
