A group of app developers have filed a class action lawsuit against Apple on the heels of a court ruling against the company for violating a 2021 injunction involving mobile purchases.
The class action, filed on May 2, alleges that despite the injunction, Apple continued to block app developers from pointing users to in-app purchases and subscriptions outside of the company’s own ecosystem, so that it wouldn’t lose out on the 30% fee it charges to developers.
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The class action is a latest turn in a legal saga that primarily pitted Epic Games, the publisher of Fortnite, against the world’s largest tech company. A concurrent battle has been going on between Epic and Samsung and Google over access to app storefronts.
The law firm Hagens Berman filed the suit and named as its primary plaintiff Pure Sweat Basketball, Inc, which has a free app for improving basketball skills. The suit says Apple prevented the company from linking to a subscription page from its mobile app.
“As a result of Apple’s misconduct, attorneys estimate that potentially more than 100,000 similarly situated app developers were prevented from selling in-app products (including subscriptions) directly to their customers, and were forced to pay Apple commissions on in-app sales that Apple was not entitled to receive,” a representative for Hagens Berman said in a post about the suit.
The way app stores from Apple and Google govern the way subscriptions and in-app purchases are handled within apps has long been a controversial issue with developers. In 2020 and 2021, Apple, then Google lowered the 30% cut they take to 15%, but only for developers whose apps are making less than $1 million.
That change wasn’t enough to stave off charges of anticompetitive practices. Apple continued to keep developers from steering users outside their apps, where they could get a larger profit margin or offer discounts on in-app purchases or subscriptions. Last week, a judge ruled that Apple violated its injunction and needs to comply immediately.
A representative for Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
