Microsoft did that once, the govt fined them 1M a day for giving away windows explorer for free. They ended up paying over 200M so your statement isn't always true. Apple needs to tread lightly bc if the govt feels they are a monopoly. They will break them up like they did with AT&T back then.
This is a gross oversimplification. Microsoft was fined for leveraging its OS monopoly (95-99% marketshare) to force OEMs to distribute it's browser to the exclusion of competitors. There was much more to the story than giving away a browser for free. The situation with Apple is completely different.