Apple Antitrust

Google today appealed a 2024 ruling that found it violated antitrust law by paying to be the default search engine on iPhones. In a filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Google said the district court made an error when concluding that Google's search success was due to anything other than competition on merit. Google suggested it surpassed competition through better...

Fortnite is back on the App Store in every country except Australia, Epic Games announced today, as the company declared it is entering the "final battle" of its long-running legal dispute with Apple. Epic said the decision to push Fortnite back onto iOS globally was prompted by Apple's own words to the U.S. Supreme Court, in which Apple acknowledged that "regulators around the world are...

An Indian court has ruled that Apple must cooperate with a government investigation into its App Store practices, rejecting the company's attempt to put the case on hold (via Reuters). The Delhi High Court ruling keeps a probe by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) alive, which found in 2024 that Apple had abused its dominant position in the iPhone apps market. The CCI wants Apple's...

Rave, a cross-platform service that lets users watch movies and TV shows together, today filed a series of antitrust lawsuits against Apple after Apple removed the Rave app from the App Store in August 2025. According to Rave, Apple cited "unspecified allegations of fraud and vague concerns about content moderation" when pulling the app. Rave alleges Apple targeted the service because Rave...

Apple is facing a fast-track decision on regulatory penalties in India because it has not submitted data sought by the country's antitrust body as part of an investigation into its market practices. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) ⁠published a report in 2024 that Apple exploited its dominant position in the apps market by forcing developers to use its proprietary in-app purchase...

Apple has asked a U.S. court to formally request internal Samsung documents from South Korea as part of discovery in the DOJ's ongoing antitrust lawsuit against the company. The DOJ filed suit against Apple in March 2024, alongside a number of governments, alleging the company used App Store rules, developer restrictions, and control over key iPhone features to stifle competition. After Apple...

A coalition of Europe's biggest broadcasters is pushing the EU to bring smart TV platforms like Apple TV and virtual assistants like Siri under the bloc's toughest tech regulation, reports Reuters. The Association of Commercial Television and Video on Demand Services in Europe (ACT), whose members include Disney, NBCUniversal, Paramount+, and Sky, sent a letter on Monday to EU antitrust...

Apple and Google have agreed to a series of changes aimed at making their app stores fairer for developers, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced today. The concrete commitments come after the CMA found the two companies had a duopoly and designated them as having "strategic market status" in mobile platforms last October. The designation is not a finding of wrongdoing,...

Apple this week got sued in a New Jersey Federal court by the maker of mobile video app Camo, alleging Apple stole its technology when the company integrated its Continuity Camera feature into iOS 16 in 2022. Released by London-based Reincubate in 2020, the Camo app enables iPhone and Android smartphones to be used as webcams for desktop-based video calls. Apple's Continuity Camera...

A new UK class action lawsuit against Apple seeks billions in damages by alleging that the company unlawfully restricted competition in contactless payments on the iPhone through Apple Pay, The Guardian reports. The proposed opt-out collective action filed this week in the UK alleges that Apple abused its position in the market by limiting access to the iPhone's near-field communication...

Apple this week secured another victory in its ongoing legal dispute with heart monitoring company AliveCor, after a federal appeals court upheld a 2024 ruling that found Apple's changes to the Apple Watch were lawful product improvements rather than anticompetitive behavior. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court decision that rejected AliveCor's antitrust claims....

Apple has asked the UK Court of Appeal to overturn a £1.5 billion ($1.76 billion) antitrust ruling that found the company overcharged millions of App Store users, escalating one of the most significant competition cases ever brought against the company in the country (via The Guardian). The application follows a decision in October by the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), which concluded ...

Brazilian regulators have approved a settlement that will require Apple to change how the App Store operates on iPhone in the country, including allowing alternative app stores, expanded payment options, and a defined new fee structure. In a press release, Brazil's Administrative Council of Economic Defense (CADE), said its court has approved a Term of Commitment to Cease proposed by Apple...

Apple and Amazon are facing a new UK opt-out class action seeking more than £900 million ($1.2 billion) over claims that the companies struck an unlawful deal that pushed independent Apple and Beats sellers off Amazon and kept prices higher for consumers. The claim centers on an agreement from October 2018, from which point it is alleged that Amazon restricted third-party sellers from...

Switzerland's competition authority has launched a preliminary investigation into whether Apple's terms for granting third-party access to NFC technology on iPhones violate its antitrust laws. The Secretariat of the Swiss Competition Commission opened the probe on December 10 to examine whether rival mobile payment apps can compete fairly with Apple Pay for contactless payments in stores. ...

Apple is not going to be able to escape a class-action antitrust lawsuit over anticompetitive App Store fees in the Netherlands, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) said today. The decision could see Apple facing millions of euros in damages, and it sets a precedent for similar lawsuits in other European countries (via Reuters). Apple could ultimately have to pay up to an estimated 637...

The EU has begun looking into whether Apple Maps and Apple Ads should be designated as "gatekeepers" and subject to greater regulation (via Reuters). The App Store, iOS, and Safari were classified as gatekeepers two years ago, triggering strict requirements in the EU such as support for alternative app marketplaces and third-party payment options. Under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), any...

Apple is fighting an antitrust penalty law in India that could require it to pay massive fines in its ongoing antitrust dispute with Tinder owner Match, reports Reuters. Last year, India passed a law that allows the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to use global turnover when calculating penalties imposed on companies for abusing market dominance. Apple can be fined up to 10 percent,...

Poland's antitrust regulator is investigating whether Apple is restricting competition in the mobile ads market through its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework, reports Reuters. Introduced in April 2021 with the release of iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5, Apple's ATT framework requires that all apps on ‌iPhone‌ and ‌iPad‌ ask for the user's consent before tracking their activity...

Apple today challenged the funding behind a $4 billion UK lawsuit during a tribunal hearing, raising new concerns about the iCloud class action as the company battles further antitrust scrutiny. The case was initiated by consumer group Which on behalf of consumers, alleging that Apple's iCloud storage practices lock users into the service and cause them to pay more for cloud storage than...