On home turf, Apple has enjoyed many years of relatively light regulatory scrutiny compared to Big Tech peers. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) opened a monopoly case against Google back in October 2020, for instance. It followed with a second antitrust case at the start of last year, targeting Google’s adtech. While the FTC has been pursuing an antitrust case against Meta over a similar timeframe. And who could forget Microsoft’s Windows era tango with U.S. antitrust enforcers?

Thursday’s DOJ antitrust suit, accusing Apple of being a monopolist in the high-end and U.S. smartphone markets, where the iPhone maker is charged with anti-competitive exclusion in relation to a slew of restrictions it applies to iOS developers and users, shows the company’s honeymoon period with local law enforcers is well and truly over.