US Appeals Court Revives Antitrust Lawsuit Against Apple (reuters.com)

Posted by msmash on Friday January 13, 2017 @04:40AM from the opening-pandora-box dept.

iPhone app purchasers may sue Apple over allegations that the company monopolized the market for iPhone apps by not allowing users to purchase them outside the App Store, leading to higher prices, a U.S. appeals court ruled. From a report on Reuters: The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling revives a long-simmering legal challenge originally filed in 2012 taking aim at Apple's practice of only allowing iPhones to run apps purchased from its own App Store. A group of iPhone users sued saying the Cupertino, California, company's practice was anticompetitive. Apple had argued that users did not have standing to sue it because they purchased apps from developers, with Apple simply renting out space to those developers. Developers pay a cut of their revenues to Apple in exchange for the right to sell in the App Store.

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Re:It might be something but it isn't anti-trust? by Anonymous Coward · 2017-01-13 04:59 · Score: 3, Informative

It's anti-trust because Apple can restrict what is allowed to be sold.
Re:It might be something but it isn't anti-trust? by PetiePooo · 2017-01-13 04:59 · Score: 3, Informative

Anti trust implies controlling prices to the detriment of the consumer. Apple in no way sets or controls the pricing. An app developer is free to charge whatever they want or make it free.
IANAL, but I believe where antitrust charge comes into play is not in the control of pricing, but the control of access to the market. They have created a monopoly where they can dictate terms, fees, and other aspects of the market because the only path to that market is via their storefront.

M-W has nothing specifically about price control in their definition.