Thursday, January 12, 2017

Appeals Court Revives Antitrust Lawsuit Against Apple

Thanks to a recent US Appeals Court ruling, Apple must face consumer claims of price fixing and ultimately may be on the hook for "hundreds of millions" of dollars.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling revives a long-simmering legal challenge originally filed in 2012 taking aim at Apple’s practice of only allowing iPhones to run apps purchased from its own App Store. A group of iPhone users sued saying the Cupertino, California, company's practice was anticompetitive. Apple had argued that users did not have standing to sue it because they purchased apps from developers, with Apple simply renting out space to those developers. Developers pay a cut of their revenues to Apple in exchange for the right to sell in the App Store.