On Thursday, Apple Inc. lost a claim to dismiss a lawsuit in the federal court of California against Cydia, a competing app store. The plaintiff accuses iPhone manufacturers of upholding unlawful control over the software distribution on its OS (Operating system).
Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, a U.S. District Judge in Oakland, California rejected Apple’s argument that Cydia’s accusations fell outside the scope of a four-year window permitted under the federal antitrust legislation.
Gonzalez Rogers delivered her decision and ruled out that the first lawsuit fell outside the scope of the statute of limitations. However, she also allowed Cydia to file a new complaint, which they brought forward in January.
Plaintiff’s lawyers argued in the revised lawsuit that Apple tech updates caused harm to the iOS apps distributors like Cydia, thus labeling it as “overt acts,” thus pointing toward the technology updates from 2018 to 2021.
Gonzales Rogers, on Thursday, in her ruling, stated, “to the extent plaintiff’s claims rely on Apple’s technological updates to exclude Cydia from being able to operate altogether, those claims are timely.”
Apple and its attorneys at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher chose not to respond to the messages seeking comments on Friday immediately. However, a similar response was seen from Cydia’s lawyers at the Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan; hence there was a delay in responding to similar messages.
Apple attorneys in February argued against Cydia’s claims, calling it “time-barred” and “stale” while urging the judge Gonzales Rogers to dismiss the complaint based on its lacking proper ground while also preventing any further efforts to amend it.
The lawsuit from Cydia “seeks to open the markets for iOS app distribution and iOS app payment processing to those who wish to compete fairly with Apple, and to recover the enormous damages Apple caused Cydia.”
Apple is no stranger to lawsuits, as Cydia’s case represents the antitrust lawsuit by the Fortnite maker’s Epic games against the company in 2020 over removing their game from the App Store. Apple removed Fortnite after Epic created a payment plan that dodged the 30% commission policy of the company on in-app purchases.
Gonzales Rogers ruled in favor of Apple last year, and the case now awaits trial in the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. However, in Cydia’s case, the judge seems inclined toward the plaintiff and asks the trillion-dollar company to respond by mid-June.
