Collective action: Developers want compensation due to Apple’s app store link ban

Apple’s great US court dispute over his app store commissions that the American game group had started Epic Games, may now also have a legal impact on smaller developmentopers. A lawyer company specializing in collective lawsuits has found those affected who have agreed to to proceed against Apple to obtain compensation. If the procedure (Case 4: 25-CV-03858 at the US District Court for the Northern District of California) is actually raised for a class action, the iPhone manufacturer could be many millions. However, the court in San Francisco still has to decide whether it comes to this, especially since Apple had initially appealed in the main procedure.

Just a link, Scare Screens, commission

The law firm Hagens Berman found a possible victim of Apple’s announcement with a developer named Pure Sweat Basketball that direct links to sales platforms for in-app content on the web are prohibited or proven with a high commission of 27 percent. According to the lawyers, this was not legal. As early as 2021, a court had decided that Apple had to allow developers to advertise external payments. This is exactly what the group has not done, according to a judge.

Apple had also forced developers to carry exactly the book and then pay between 12 and 27 percent commission (depending on sales-the smaller sum of less than $ 1 million a year). There was only 3 percent discount for the use of their own payment provider for the developers. In addition, only a single link was allowed to be set that was not allowed to be dynamically (i.e. adapted to the customer). There were also so -called Scare Screens, who informed customers that the App Store was leaving – this could have been prevented from using the payment route.

Skim off “illegal profits”

Hagens Berman, who had already won millions of lawsuits against Apple in the past, now wants Apple to publish its “illegal profits”. Among other things, the lawsuit states that Apple’s measures have led to the possibility of using almost no developer the opportunity to use external payments.

In 15 months there were only 34 development operations that would have obtained permits for so-called linked-out playments. “This corresponds to a negligible 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 a different conflict with Apple: the group wants to collect parts of its legal costs from the law firm, Because Hagens Berman have unnecessarily delayed a procedure should.