U.S. Supreme Court Rules Apple Customers Could Sue Over App Store Monopoly

[travelin cat]

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that customers of Apple can sue the company over claims that its App Store amounts to a monopoly that artificially inflates prices.

[nbcnews.com...]

[tangor]

Be interesting to see where this goes in the future. Will Apple make changes? Will App devs and users use?

The other takeaway is that g and fb are also subject to this ruling in various ways.

[not2easy]

The ruling is silly imho because customers are not the ones complaining. Devs maybe, but apps are cheap overall. Personally I much prefer the assurance of a curated selection within a secure payment platform rather than a guessing game. Apple does not prevent people from buying apps outside the AppStore, some of them existed before the AppStore was a thing. I use paid apps from outside the app store, they built their reputation via word of mouth. But it will be interesting to see how much more successful these developers might be with their new opportunities.

BTW - there is nothing to prevent Apple from restructuring their end of things so that payments go directly to devs and then devs are charged the service fees for the platform. No matter how you sell online there are costs and CS issues to deal with.

[tangor]

"To evade the court’s test, all Apple must do is amend its contracts," Gorsuch wrote. "Instead of collecting payments for apps sold in the App Store and remitting the balance (less its commission) to developers, Apple can simply specify that consumers’ payments will flow the other way: directly to the developers, who will then remit commissions to Apple."

[bloomberg.com...]

App devs might have a different problem in the future ... how much can they actually charge?

At present all this ruling means is lawsuits can be filed. No class action lawsuits HAVE been filed (or if filed, are not in the news).

[graeme_p]

I use paid apps from outside the app store, they built their reputation via word of mouth.

I thought iOS did not allow that, or alternative app stores?

No matter how you sell online there are costs and CS issues to deal with.

The costs are 30% of the cost of an app? I doubt it. Its not what it would cost in a competitive market.

[blend27]

>>> Ducking for a while after my own comment...

Switch to BlackBerry!

[Brett_Tabke]

I have used Amazon's app store for Android for years. There has never been an issue.
No reason Amazon shouldn't be able to offer an App store for ios as well.

[azlinda]

This was a ridiculous SCOTUS ruling in my opinion. There is a solution. If you don't like the price of software/app, just don't buy it. After all, we are a capitalistic system. And most, if they can afford an iPhone, can afford the software/apps.

[goodoldweb]

As an app developer...great ruling! The iOs app store is the mother of all monopolies.

Watch now how Apple appeal the decision and bury the case for he next 10 years. Their entire business model depends on it :)

[graeme_p]

azlinda, there are amny forms of capitalism. The question is do you want free market capitlaism or rentier capitalism?