Apple faces class action lawsuit from UK developers over App Store commission

A group of UK app developers has filed a class-action lawsuit against Apple, accusing the company of anti-competitive practices. The lawsuit alleges that Apple’s commission fees on App Store sales create an unfair burden on the UK tech industry.
Eleanor Thornber for Bloomberg News:
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The iPhone maker could be on the hook for repaying as much as £785 million ($995 million) in fees to as many as 13,000 developers, according to UK competition policy professor Sean Ennis, who’s leading the claim. Judges at the UK’s Competition Appeal Tribunal paved the way for the suit to continue after dismissing the US firm’s arguments to block the case.
Apple charged commission fees on UK-based app developers who sold their apps via the App Store or made sales to iOS device users via subscriptions within their apps from July 25, 2017 onwards, Ennis said in court filings.
Ennis, who’s held positions at the US Department of Justice and European Commission, obtained funding for the claim from a third-party litigation funder, Harbour Litigation Funding.

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MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s App Store is a boon for developers. Most UK developers do not have to pay any App Store commission whatsoever. For those who do, roughly half pay 15 percent, which is a pittance for all that the App Store delivers to developers.
How much did it cost developers to have their apps burned onto CDs, boxed, shipped, displayed on store shelves prior to Apple remaking the world for the better for umpteenth time? Apple incurs costs to store, review, organize, surface, and distribute apps to over one billion users. — MacDailyNews, June 10, 2022

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The post Apple faces class action lawsuit from UK developers over App Store commission appeared first on MacDailyNews.