Apple settles $100 million developer class action lawsuit, but changes are not meaningful

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Published on August 27, 2021

by Surur Davids

published on August 27, 2021

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Apple has proposed a settlement to a 2019 class-action Cameron et al v. Apple Inc lawsuit by app store developers with a number of changes that goes some way to help developers but does not go far enough to address Apple’s anti-competitive practices.

The most significant improvement is that Apple will now let developers contact users and inform them of ways to pay them directly without them having to pay a 30% cut to Apple. Unfortunately, developers will not be able to inform users of these options inside the app, and will have to contact them via another channel (e.g. email) and will have to get the consent of users to collect their contact data, putting up several barriers to developers escaping the Apple Tax.

Other changes are less significant going forward and include:

A promise to keep the App Store Small Business Program, which allows developers who earn less than $1 million in a year to apply for a reduced 15 percent commission from their sales, in place in its “current structure” for at least the next three years.
The company will publish an annual transparency report about the App Store that will include “meaningful statistics about the app review process, including the number of apps rejected for different reasons, the number of customer and developer accounts deactivated, objective data regarding search queries and results, and the number of apps removed from the App Store.”
Developers will be able to set more than 500 price points for subscriptions, in-app purchases, and paid apps, up from 100, allowing them to set a wider range of prices.
Apple is committing to keeping the current App Store Search system in place “for at least the next three years.”
The company will add an unspecified amount and type of additional information about the app appeals process to the App Review website to “help developers understand how the appeals process works.”

Apple has spun the settlement as “updates that will support businesses and maintain a great experience for users.” Read their press release here.

via the verge

Surur Davids

Smartphone Expert

Surur Davids is the founder of WMPoweruser which later became MSPoweruser.com. He's a smartphone expert with over a decade of experience.

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