A trial opening TODAY in which plaintiffs want more than one billion pounds is set to answer that question.
The complaint, filed in May 2021, accuses Apple of violating European and UK competition laws by “excluding any other app stores from iOS devices” like iPhones and iPads.
It claims that some 20 million Apple users may have been overcharged by the company “due to its ban on rival app store platforms.”
The complainants say the company’s ” 30 percent surcharge” on apps purchased through Apple’s App Store comes at the “expense of ordinary consumers.”
The case, which Apple has called “meritless”, has been brought by Kings College London academic Rachael Kent and the law firm Hausfeld & Co.
The trial is set to last seven weeks at the Competition Appeal Tribunal in London.
At the heart are accusations that Apple used the App Store to exclude competitors, forcing users to use its system and boosting profits.
“The 30 per cent surcharge relates to most of the applications that you’re going to be using when you’re downloading and making in-app purchases on the App Store,” Kent told AFP, citing dating platform Tinder as an example.
However, the academic specifies that it does not apply to applications offering physical products, such as the delivery services Deliveroo and Uber Eats.
AFP
