From Supreme Court, App Store Monopoly Lawsuit Is Coming To Apple

The Supreme Court has allowed the proceeding of an antitrust lawsuit against Apple. They have rejected the argument of Apple that the users of the iOS App Store are not its direct customers. They also upheld the decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Apple v. Pepper. Justice Brett Kavanaugh has written:

Apple has been saying that technically speaking, iOS users buy apps directly from the developers, and the developers are the customers of the App Store of Apple. This follows a legal doctrine with the name of Illinois Brick. In that doctrine, the "indirect purchasers" of a product don't have the right to file antitrust lawsuits. However, with this recent decision, the Supreme Court has confirmed that this logic does not apply in the case of the App Store.

Apple Was Trying To "Gerrymander" The Antitrust Law

In Apple v. Pepper case they have claimed that Apple adds a mandatory fee that the developers then pass on to the customers because they require iOS users to purchase apps via Apple official App Store then charge the developers a 30% commission for each sale. Kavanaugh wrote in the verdict:

And more importantly:

Apple Store Is ‘Not A Monopoly

Look back at the original case of Illinois Brick, a court at that time ruled that the customer who paid a not related contractor to build with the bricks of Illinois Brick couldn't sue the company. But in the case of Apple, then iPhone owners aren't consumers that are at the bottom of this vertical distribution chain trying to sue producers at the chain's top. The ruling of Kavanaugh has concluded that Apple has used rhetorical tricks to say that they are not the direct seller. This very same trick could also allow other companies to avoid legitimate antitrust claims.

In case that Apple loses this antitrust case. Then there is a chance they will have to repay all those that they have "overcharged" before ( regarding the markup of Apple Store). It could even open the walled garden of iOS. In the evading effort against this outcome, Apple has made some legal arguments. For example, they argued that the customers are free to purchase app via many other app stores on other OS systems. However, the Supreme Court hasn't addressed these arguments of Apple yet.

Apple has also published its statement in defense of the ecosystem of its App Store. “The App Store is not a monopoly by any metric,” an Apple representative said:

Apple Is Not Giving Up

According to Apple, they are very proud because they have made the most secure, trusted, and safest platform for a lot of customers. They have also provided a significant business opportunity for app developers all over the globe. Apple doesn't have any control over the pricing that the developers charge their customers. In fact, most of the app on the App Store is free, and Apple doesn't get anything from those. Apple only shares revenue with the developers in the only instance that they cooperate in selling digital services.

The developers have lots of platforms to choose to deliver their products. And that Apple is working every day to make their store be the safest, best in the world.