Apple CEO Tim Cook delivers the keynote address during the 2019 Apple Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) at the San Jose Convention Center on June 03, 2019 in San Jose, California.

As Apple reportedly faces the potential for a Justice Department investigation into anti-competitive behavior, CEO Tim Cook says the company's inferior position in the global smartphone market could be its saving grace.

"I think we should be scrutinized. But if you look at our — any kind of measure about is Apple a monopoly or not, I don't think anybody reasonable is going to come to the conclusion that Apple's a monopoly," Cook said in an interview Monday with CBS News. "Our share is much more modest. We don't have a dominant position in any market."

Apple lagged Samsung and Huawei in terms of worldwide market share for smartphones as of the first quarter of 2019, according to the International Data Corporation. While the iPhone appears to be ubiquitous in the U.S., other brands are more prevalent internationally.

Given Apple's relatively small market share in that space, Cook said, "we are not a monopoly."