Latest news with #PureSweatBasketball
CNET
06-05-2025
- Business
- CNET
Developers Sue Apple For Failing To Comply With In-App Payments Order
A group of app developers have filed a class action lawsuit against Apple on the heels of a court ruling against the company for violating a 2021 injunction involving mobile purchases. The class action, filed on May 2, alleges that despite the injunction, Apple continued to block app developers from pointing users to in-app purchases and subscriptions outside of the company's own ecosystem, so that it wouldn't lose out on the 30% fee it charges to developers. The class action is a latest turn in a legal saga that primarily pitted Epic Games, the publisher of Fortnite, against the world's largest tech company. A concurrent battle has been going on between Epic and Samsung and Google over access to app storefronts. The law firm Hagens Berman filed the suit and named as its primary plaintiff Pure Sweat Basketball, Inc, which has a free app for improving basketball skills. The suit says thar Apple prevented the company from linking to a subscription page from its mobile app. "As a result of Apple's misconduct, attorneys estimate that potentially more than 100,000 similarly situated app developers were prevented from selling in-app products (including subscriptions) directly to their customers, and were forced to pay Apple commissions on in-app sales that Apple was not entitled to receive," Hagens Berman said in a post about the suit. A representative for Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Engadget
06-05-2025
- Business
- Engadget
Apple hit with class action suit from developers after App Store ruling
Apple may see further fallout over its failure to comply with a court order that led to last week's contempt ruling. A class action suit filed on behalf of developers claims that Apple's actions cost Pure Sweat Basketball (and other developers) revenue during the period it was found to have violated the original court order. "Had Apple complied with the injunction, as required, Pure Sweat would have been able to sell subscriptions to its app directly to its customers," the law firm, Hagens Berman, alleges. The original 2021 court ruling forced Apple to allow App Store developers to direct user to other payments systems so that they could bypass the 30 percent of of in-app payments taken by Apple. The App Store was supposed to stop preventing developers from including buttons or links in their apps and metadata that would allow allow users to make purchases outside the App Store environment. However, developer Epic Games accused Apple of "malicious compliance" with the ruling because it still charged a commission of up to 27 percent on any sales made through links to external payment systems. It also said Apple came up with onerous restrictions on external buttons, among other violations. In her ruling last week, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said Apple "chose the most anticompetitive option" at every turn. She even alleged that Apple lied under oath to hide the truth about its actions and referred the case to a US attorney for a criminal contempt investigation. "The court ultimately held that Apple willfully violated the injunction to protect its revenues, and then 'reverse engineered' justifications to proffer to the court, often with 'lies on the witness stand," the class action lawsuit states. "The evidence showed that while one senior Apple executive [Phil Schiller] 'advocated that Apple comply with the injunction,' Mr. Cook ignored this advice and allowed others in his finance team to convince him otherwise. Cook chose poorly." The class action seeks to recover lost revenue for up to 100,000 or more developers forced to pay Apple commissions that shouldn't have existed. Hagens Berman obtained a $100 million settlement for iOS developers in a previous App Store class action suit.
Mint
06-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
New lawsuit claims Apple withheld billions from developers by defying US court order
Following last week's ruling in the Epic Games case, Apple has been hit with yet another lawsuit. The new class-action lawsuit claims that app developers could have added external links for purchases and avoided paying unnecessary commissions to Apple if the company had complied with an injunction issued by a US court over the past 15 months or so. The lawsuit was filed by law firm Hagens Berman on behalf of the developers of Pure Sweat Basketball, an app used by professional basketball players. The developers had previously included external links for payments, but Apple forced them to remove those. 'Had Apple complied with the injunction as issued, Apple's own studies show that developers would have saved potentially billions in in-app purchase commissions. These are ill-gotten gains and Apple should not be permitted to retain them.' the lawsuit claims. 'Apple should be made to disgorge its wrongful profit, and Developers are entitled to be made whole' it added. The lawsuit states that developers lost 'hundreds of millions to billions' Apple estimated the revenue impact to be 'hundreds of millions to billions' due to the non-implementation of the injunction issued in 2021. US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled last week that Apple had willfully violated her injunction order in the Epic Games case by charging developers a new 27% fee when users pay outside the App Store, and referred the company to federal prosecutors for possible criminal contempt charges. Shortly after the ruling, Apple changed its App Store policies to allow developers to add external payment links. The company has denied violating the injunction and has also filed an appeal in the case. Apple had also approved an update to the Spotify app that allows users to access subscription prices and make external payments. First Published: 6 May 2025, 10:37 AM IST
Time of India
05-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Apple hit with app developer class action after US judge's contempt ruling
Apple is facing a class action lawsuit accusing it of defying a 2021 court order meant to loosen App Store restrictions, costing developers potentially billions. Filed by Pure Sweat Basketball, the suit claims Apple imposed inflated commissions and ignored the injunction, prompting calls for financial restitution and possible criminal investigation. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Apple should return hundreds of millions of dollars to developers who claim the iPhone maker defied a US judge's order governing its lucrative App Store, causing them to pay inflated commissions for more than a year, a new lawsuit developer Pure Sweat Basketball filed the proposed class action on Friday in the Oakland, California, federal court, after a judge ruled last week that Apple defied her order in a lawsuit brought by "Fortnite" maker Epic 2021 injunction in that lawsuit was supposed to give developers more freedom to steer consumers outside Apple's App Store for potentially cheaper purchases. Pure Sweat's lawsuit was filed on behalf of as many as 100,000 lawsuit estimated that Apple's conduct cost them "hundreds of millions or even billions" of dollars in damages."Apple should be made to disgorge its wrongful profit, and developers are entitled to be made whole," the complaint did not immediately respond to a request for a statement, Steve Berman, a lead attorney for Pure Sweat, said they were focused on "obtaining justice" against lawsuit follows U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers' April 30 ruling that said Apple willfully violated her injunction in the Epic Games case, including by charging developers a new 27% fee when Apple customers complete an app purchase outside the App Store. The injunction became effective in January Rogers referred Apple and one of its executives to federal prosecutors for a possible criminal contempt denied violating Rogers' order, and the company on Monday filed its notice of Sweat said Apple blocked the developer in 2023 from publishing an app for education videos and workouts that contained links to purchase content outside of the app."Apple schemed to maintain the status quo, as if no Injunction had entered, retaining its billion dollar in-app payments revenue stream while depriving developers of the intended fruits of the Injunction," the lawsuit faces other consumer and government lawsuits challenging its business practices. In one such case, Hagens Berman is representing consumers accusing Apple of illegally monopolizing the smartphone market.
