Apple To Face Lawsuit Over App Monopoly Allegations

(RTTNews) - A US appeals court has revived a lawsuit that accuses Apple monopolizing the sale of iOS applications using App Store.

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court decision and said that iOS app purchasers have the legal right to sue the iPhone maker.

The lawsuit claims that lack of competition and monopoly of App Store has led to increased prices for iPhone apps. The suit, initially filed in late 2011, seeks hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

"The panel reversed the dismissal for lack of statutory standing of an antitrust complaint alleging that Apple, Inc., monopolized and attempted to monopolize the market for iPhone apps," the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit said in a written ruling."

"The panel held that the plaintiffs were direct purchasers of iPhone apps from Apple, rather than the app developers, and therefore had standing to sue."

Apple, which earns about 30 percent of from sale of apps, has claimed that it does not sell any apps but only provides a platform for developers to sell apps.

Early this month, Apple revealed that the total revenue of the App Store topped $28.5 billion in 2016. Apple customers spent about $240 million on the App Store on New Year's Day alone.