A U.S. federal judge has rejected Apple’s attempt to dismiss a sweeping antitrust lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice, paving the way for the high-profile case to proceed. The ruling marks a significant development in the legal battle over Apple’s alleged monopoly in the smartphone market.

District Judge Julien Neals, presiding in New Jersey, ruled on Monday that the government had presented sufficient evidence to support its claims that Apple holds monopoly power and has used anticompetitive tactics to retain that dominance. His decision clears the path for the case to advance to trial, although no trial date has been set, and proceedings are expected to take several years.

The lawsuit, filed in March 2024 by the Department of Justice in collaboration with 20 U.S. states, accuses Apple of unlawfully stifling competition in the smartphone sector. The case centres on the claim that Apple imposes restrictions on app developers and hardware manufacturers, limiting innovation and consumer choice.

The government’s complaint asserts that Apple controls 65% of the general U.S. smartphone market and an even larger share—70%—of the “performance smartphone” category, which excludes lower-end devices. Judge Neals concluded that these figures, along with the existence of high barriers to entry, provided enough basis to proceed with the antitrust case.

Prosecutors have identified five technologies where Apple allegedly enforces restrictive practices to maintain its market dominance: “super apps,” cloud gaming platforms, cross-platform messaging, smartwatches, and digital wallets. Internal Apple communications cited in the case reportedly reveal executive strategies to prevent users from switching to rival products.

An Apple spokesperson responded to the ruling by stating the company believes the lawsuit is “wrong on the facts and the law” and vowed to fight the case vigorously in court.

If the court rules in the government’s favour, Apple could face sweeping remedies, ranging from changes to its business operations to potential break-ups of certain divisions within its hardware and software empire.

This case is one of several major antitrust actions taken against major tech firms under the Trump and Biden administrations. Apple joins a list that includes Meta, Amazon, and Google, the latter of which has already been found to have operated an illegal monopoly in two separate cases and may be forced to divest parts of its business.