A new lawsuit by app developer Pure Sweat Basketball and on behalf of as many as 100,000 other developers was filed on Friday against iPhone maker Apple.
The lawsuit claims that Apple needs to return hundreds of millions of dollars to devs who say they ended up paying higher commissions to Apple over the last year, in defiance of a court order to allow app developers to use their own processing solutions in preference to Apple's payment system.
"It appears as though Apple has been caught red-handed blatantly seeking to undercut the law," said Steve Berman, managing partner of the legal firm Hagens Berman, which is representing Pure Sweat, in a statement. "We believe app developers deserve a fair market to promote and sell their products, and the world's largest corporation doesn't get to bully them out of this billion-dollar revenue stream."
Traditionally, Apple charges app developers fees of up to 30% per transaction to use its payment systems, which is the only system developers have been allowed to use.
A previous lawsuit resulted in a ruling by US District Judge Yvonne Gonzales Rogers, which said that Apple wilfully violated her injunction in the case against Apple by Epic Games, ending up charging developers a new 27% fee when they use a third-party system. Apple has denied violating the ruling and filed a notice of appeal on Monday.
"Apple's scheme worked as planned," says the lawsuit. "Although the injunction has been in 'effect' for over 15 months, Apple has been able to identify only 34 developers who have even applied to offer linked-out payments through their apps. This represents an infinitesimal 0.025% of the 136,000 developers who offer apps through the App Store."
This isn't the only lawsuit Hagens Berman is handling against the tech giant, either, as it also represents consumers accusing Apple of monopolizing the smartphone market.
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