![]() ![]() The appeal has been filed with the Competition Appeal Tribunal – which recently threw out another antitrust claim against Apple by the UK competition watchdog, the CMA. ![]() Follows earlier mess-up by the UK competition watchdog “The charges are unfair in their own right, and constitute abusive pricing.”Įnnis argues that excessive commissions also harm consumers, by pushing up the prices of apps. “Apple’s charges to app developers are excessive, and only possible due to its monopoly on the distribution of apps onto iPhones and iPads,” Ennis said in a statement. ![]() The UK lawsuit at the Competition Appeal Tribunal is being brought by Sean Ennis, a professor at the Centre for Competition Policy at the University of East Anglia and a former economist at the OECD, on behalf of 1,566 app developers. Reuters reports on the latest development: a billion-dollar class action lawsuit on behalf of more than 1,500 developers in the UK.Īpple on Tuesday found itself the target of a 785-million-pound ($1 billion) class action lawsuit brought by more than 1,500 apps developers in the UK over its App Store fees ![]() Edge cases aside, there is currently no way for a developer to bring an iOS app to market without selling it through the App Store.Īntitrust regulators tend to take this latter view, and they are joined in this by many developers. The opposing view is that the relevant market is “iOS apps,” and here Apple has a 100% monopoly on their sale and distribution. It therefore cannot have the dominant position needed to find it guilty of monopolistic behavior. Apple considers the relevant market to be either “smartphones” or “apps,” and argues that it holds a minority share of this market. The crux of the argument comes down to the definition of the market for iPhone apps. This is, of course, a regular accusation levied against Apple, by anyone from individual developers – like Epic Games – to antitrust regulators around the world. The antitrust lawsuit says that Apple’s monopoly on the sale and distribution of iOS apps means that it is able to set its own commission levels, and that developers have no choice but to accept it … Background A billion-dollar Apple lawsuit has been filed on behalf of more than 1,500 app developers, accusing the company of “abusive” commission levels on app sales and subscriptions. ![]()
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