Apple wants a £1.5 billion (about US$2 billion) court ruling on behalf of millions of UK customers overturned, according to The Guardian. It found the company overcharged them for years in its App Store.
The tech giant has applied to UK’s Court of Appeal to challenge a verdict that campaigners heralded as the start of a “tidal shift against big tech,” according to The Guardian. This would escalate the case beyond the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT).
The appeal, if allowed, involves one of several class action suits against Apple and Google in which consumers, small businesses and entrepreneurs are demanding over £6 billion in combined compensation. The class action cases use an opt-out system that means millions of people can be represented at once in claims of breaches of competition law.
The antitrust lawsuit — filed by more than 1,500 developers — 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.
In October Britain’s CAT ruled against Apple after a trial of the lawsuit that accuses the tech giant of abusing its power. The London tribunal says Apple abused its dominant position by charging app developers unfair commissions, “in a blow which could leave the U.S. tech company on the hook for hundreds of millions of pounds in damages,” reports Reuters.
CAT ruled that the tech giant had abused its dominant position from October 2015 until the end of 2020 by shutting out competition in the app distribution market and by “charging excessive and unfair prices” as commission to developers.
Apple wants the ruling overturned as it “takes a flawed view of the thriving and competitive app economy.” The lawsuit alleges Apple’s 15-30% commission on App Store sales creates an anti-competitive tax on the UK technology industry. The case could potentially benefit up to 13,000 developers who have sold apps or in-app subscriptions to iOS users since July 2017.
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