Class action: Developers seek damages due to Apple's App Store link ban
Epic Games has won a US court ruling that Apple must also allow commission-free in-app sales on the web. Are developers entitled to compensation?
App Store: US developers want to see money.
(Image: BigTunaOnline / Shutterstock)
Apple's major US court battle over its App Store commissions, which was initiated by the American games company Epic Games, may now also have legal repercussions for smaller developers. A law firm specializing in class actions has found affected parties who have agreed to take legal action against Apple in order to receive compensation. Should the proceedings (Case 4:25-cv-03858 at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California) actually be elevated to a class action, the iPhone manufacturer could be looking at many millions. However, the court in San Francisco has yet to decide whether this will happen, especially as Apple initially filed an appeal in the main proceedings.
Just a link, scare screens, commission
The law firm Hagens Berman found a developer called Pure Sweat Basketball to be a potential victim of Apple's announcement that direct links to sales platforms for in-app content on the web are prohibited or subject to a high commission of 27 percent. According to the lawyers, this was not legal. A court had already ruled in 2021 that Apple must allow developers to advertise external payment channels. However, a judge has now ruled that this is precisely what the company did not do.
Apple had also forced developers to keep accurate records for web payments and then pay between 12 and 27 percent commission (depending on turnover – the smaller sum is less than 1 million US dollars per year). There was only a 3 percent discount for developers using their own payment provider. In addition, only a single link could be set, which could not be dynamic (i.e. adapted to the customer). There were also scare screens informing customers that they were leaving the app store –, which may have deterred them from using the payment method.
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Skimming off "illegal profits"
Hagens Berman, which has already won million-dollar lawsuits against Apple in the past, now wants Apple to hand over its "illegal profits". The lawsuit states, among other things, that Apple's measures have resulted in almost no developers taking advantage of the opportunity to use external payment channels.
In 15 months, there were only 34 developers who had obtained approvals for so-called linked-out payments. "This corresponds to a vanishingly small proportion of 0.025 percent of the 136,000 developers who offer apps via the App Store." The lawsuit is now going through the court. Apple has not yet commented. Hagens Berman is currently in another conflict with Apple: the company wants to recover some of its legal costs from the law firm because Hagens Berman is said to have unnecessarily delayed proceedings.
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