Tech giant Apple is being sued by over 1,500 British app developers over excessive fees for access to the app store, the only means of distributing apps to iPhone users.
Apple has long faced controversy over its fees, whereby third party app developers are charged up to 30 percent of in-app payments.
Apple CEO Tim Cook poses for a goofy selfie ( Justin Sullivan/Getty)
The fees, combined with the fact that there is no way to access Apple users except via the app store has led to charges of anti-competitive behavior on the part of Apple.
In the U.S., Epic Games, the studio behind popular video game franchises Fortnite, Unreal, and Gears of War, has also sued Apple over its app store fees, in a high-profile case that has attracted support from a number of states.
It appears Apple is now facing similar problems in the UK.
The £785m (€912m) class action lawsuit is seeking compensation for the developers, who pay the iPhone-maker commissions of up to 30% for in-app payments. Companies and lawmakers around the world have lambasted the policy.
Critics accuse Apple of operating a monopoly that diverts earnings away from developers. They note that Apple’s services business — which includes the App Store — grew 5.5% to $20.9 billion in the first fiscal quarter of this year.
The new lawsuit was filed by Sean Ennis — a professor at the University of East Anglia Centre for Competition Policy and a former OECD economist — on behalf of 1,566 app creators.
Apple, now defending its app store fee structure on both sides of the Atlantic, continues to stand its ground, saying that only 15 percent of app developers pay the highest level of fees.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.