French Class Action Lawsuit Against Apple Overcharging App Developers
A French class action lawsuit accuses Apple Inc. of overcharging app developers for using its App Store. The plaintiffs in the case include the Societe du Figaro, which produces the news app Figaro and the sports news app L’Equipe 24/24, as well as the Le Geste, a group of French content providers. The lawsuit asks for an injunction barring Apple from future anti-competitive practices and triple damages for violating California and federal antitrust laws.
The suit was filed after French app developers complained that Apple was overcharging them by up to 80 percent. The French plaintiffs, representing themselves and a few hundred other independent app developers, have retained Hagens Berman, a law firm that has successfully sued Apple for anticompetitive practices. The firm successfully settled a similar case last August with smaller iOS developers for $100 million.
The case comes as a response to a similar lawsuit filed by French app developers in August 2017. The plaintiffs allege that Apple is violating antitrust laws and preventing competition by imposing high fees on their apps. They are asking for triple damages and an investigation into Apple’s anti-competitive practices. They have yet to receive a response from Apple. The French government is now looking into the case.
In the end, Apple and Google have reached a settlement of $90 million in a similar case. The case is called Societe du Figaro et al. v. Apple Inc. and was filed in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California. While this lawsuit is not the first of its kind, it represents a significant step forward in terms of Apple’s app store fees and the way it treats app developers.
