Suit Accuses Apple of ‘Unlawful Monopolization’ of IOS Apps

Apple’s “unlawful monopolization” of the iOS apps market enabled the iPhone maker to charge and collect a “supracompetitive” 30% fee from device owners “for each and every one of the billions of iOS apps they have bought since the iPhone’s launch” 13 years ago, alleged a complaint Friday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco that seeks class-action status. “Consumers nationwide have paid hundreds of millions of dollars more for iOS apps than they would have paid in a competitive market.” Apple’s “anticompetitive scheme” generated “enormous supracompetitive profits” for the company, it said. It offers more than 2.22 million apps in the App Store, and iOS device owners “have downloaded apps more than 200 billion times since July 2008,” it said. Apple didn’t comment Monday.