Supreme Court Rules Against Apple In App Store Lawsuit

[Cristiano]

This will have big implications for the tech industry:

Supreme Court Rules Against Apple In App Store Antitrust Suit

The justices, in a 5-4 ruling, upheld a lower court's decision to allow a proposed class action lawsuit to proceed.

www.huffpost.com

 

[Cristiano]

I don't feel remotely sorry for Apple. They are the ones who established the 30% cut on apps, and then expanded it to anything sold through the app (even if not using Apple's systems to do so). It is why companies had to remove links to their own websites to avoid being charged 30% on sales (such as Amazon removing the website link from the Kindle app), and why Netflix does not let you sign up through the iOS app anymore. It's pure greed.

 

[Jolene Benoir]

Kavenaugh makes the right decision for the wrong reasons. I believe that it's high time we actually enforce the antitrust laws that are on the books. Of course, he believes that the market/lawsuits will settle it, rather than government enforcement.

This lawsuit has been going on since 2011. If there is anyone with deep enough pockets to effectively delay justice or rather some sort of reckoning, it is Apple. So, the SC will allow the class action lawsuit, but has nothing to say about the monopoly. Naturally, the Trump administration supported Apple, so fat chance of the govt actually doing its job on that count.

Explaining the ruling from the bench, Kavanaugh said, “Leaving consumers at the mercy of monopolistic retailers simply because upstream suppliers could also sue the retailers would directly contradict the longstanding goal of effective private enforcement in antitrust cases.”

 

[Kara Spengler]

I don't feel remotely sorry for Apple. They are the ones who established the 30% cut on apps, and then expanded it to anything sold through the app (even if not using Apple's systems to do so). It is why companies had to remove links to their own websites to avoid being charged 30% on sales (such as Amazon removing the website link from the Kindle app), and why Netflix does not let you sign up through the iOS app anymore. It's pure greed.

Yes, pushing the app store is bad enough but at least you can get around it. The 30% on sales from it strikes me as a bit high but a lot of places sold their app through their own site and told you how to get around the app store. What really went over the line was charging for purchases through the apps. They did nothing to support those purchases other than sell add space, which the company already paid for. Really apple? Someone downloads the kindle app and you feel entitled to 30% of a hedge-trimmer purchase?