The Apple store fees of 27% for the developers according to last week’s news caused a stir in the company. On Tuesday, Apple asked a London tribunal to throw out a mass lawsuit valued around $1 billion on behalf of more than 1500 app developers over its Apple store fees.
The case that is worth $998 million faced by the tech giant is over the accusation that Apple is charging unfair commissions up to 30% from developers on the purchase of apps or other content.
The case that was filed at the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) is being spearheaded by a competition law professor, Saen Ennis, who is also a former economist at the OECD. His lawyers argue that Apple has abused its dominant market position for the distribution of apps in its devices. They are seeking damages for the UK-based developers.
On the other hand, Apple is arguing that 85% of developers on the App Store do not pay any commission at all and is asking the CAT to throw out the case. To this the lawyers argue that it is “unsustainable”.
Apple’s lawyers Daniel Piccinin argued that the developers cannot have a claim in the UK unless they were charged on purchase made on the UK app store. The company says that this would apply only to a very small minority of claimants.
Ennis’ lawyer Paul Stanley stated that Apple “has come to the UK to offer services to UK businesses on a UK market and has abused its position by overcharging them”.
Based on this he argues that the UK law applies to the entire case and that it can continue.
Apple is facing two other lawsuits currently. The first one is a mass lawsuit over App Store commissions which was bought in behalf of 20 million UK users. It is also facing a separate case over allegedly defective iPhone batteries on behalf of 24 million iPhone users which was certified las year.
