New Apple Class Action Filed After Supreme Court’s Decision

A new class action lawsuit has been filed against Apple, arguing that the tech giant violates antitrust laws by monopolizing apps sold through Apple’s App Store and making its operating system incompatible with apps from other platforms.

This recent class action lawsuit is similar to one filed previously over the same issue.

In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court determined that it was appropriate for customers to file antitrust claims against Apple, and this new class action jumps on the previous case’s bandwagon.

The previous Apple antitrust class action lawsuit was filed by Robert Pepper, a consumer who said that Apple violated federal laws by monopolizing apps that iPhone users could use on their phone. Apple attempted to argue that the consumers could not file such a lawsuit because they were not “direct purchasers.”

However, Judge Kavanaugh and the Supreme Court’s liberal justices disagreed with Apple’s arguments, and stated that the consumers could file an antitrust class action lawsuit because they are indeed direct purchasers.

The Supreme Court has not yet made a ruling on the antitrust class action lawsuit, and instead has only determined that it may move forward.

Now, iPhone user Edward Lawrence has filed a new lawsuit based on this determination.

Lawrence argues that Apple violates the Sherman Antitrust Act by making its iPhone’s operating system incompatible with apps that are purchased on any platform other than Apple’s App Store.

The Apple iPhone class action claims that this harms consumers by preventing them from choosing cheaper options than Apple’s App Store.

The plaintiff claims that Apple further harms consumers by charging developers a 30 percent fee to put apps on the App Store, and then passes this charge on to consumers.

The Apple class action argues that “it is an artificially inflated fee that would be substantially less in an otherwise competitive market. In a competitive environment, Apple would be pressured into lowering its fee because iPhone owners would have alternatives available from which to choose more competitive pricing on similar applications.”

Lawrence goes on to assert that the current arrangement is anticompetitive because “if an iPhone owner wants to purchase an app, he has only two options: [1] buy the app from Apple’s App Store at a higher-than-competitive price or [2] do not buy the app at all.”

Allegedly, Apple does not have a valid business reason for preventing competition, like reducing production costs, or innovating in the interest of reducing prices for consumers.

The plaintiff says that “the only ‘benefit’ that flows from Apple’s conduct is a reduction in competition, and that benefit inures only to Apple’s advantage, not to that of customers or competition on the merits.”

Lawrence is represented by Joseph M. Alioto, Theresa D. Moore, and Jamie L. Miller of the Alioto Law Firm, Jeffery K. Perkins and Lawrence G. Papale.

The Apple App Store Antitrust Class Action Lawsuit is Edward Lawrence v. Apple Inc., Case No. 3:19-cv-02852, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

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