A £1.5bn class action lawsuit against Apple goes to trial in the UK today over allegations that the tech giant has violated competition law by using its dominant market position to charge developers inflated fees.
The trial, which kicks off in the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) in London on Monday, marks the latest attempt to challenge the alleged monopolistic actions of the world’s largest technology companies.
Lead claimant Dr Rachael Kent told UKTN that the lack of consumer choice for iPhone users means they are forced into accepting Apple’s terms on its App Store.
The app store market is almost entirely controlled by Apple and Google. According to mobile app marketing firm Bigabid, in 2023 Apple received 67% of total app revenue globally, with Google pulling in 23%.
“We have to use these apps to manage our lives,” Kent said. “We can only use the App Store to access the apps that we want and therein lies a lack of ability to choose to not pay this rate of commission.”
Kent acknowledged that Apple has been one of the tech industry’s most impactful innovators but said this did not justify “monopolising the market and charging excessive rates”.
The trial, estimated to last around seven weeks, is the first of its kind to be held in the CAT following the introduction of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act (DMCC). Passed in 2024, the legislation updated the language of UK competition law to better extend to digital industries and acts as a counterpart to the EU’s Digital Markets Act.
Kent said the “fantastic regime” brought into the UK has created a “perfect storm” for Britain to lead globally in regulating the anti-competitive behaviours of Big Tech firms.
“We’ve got brilliant lawyers behind us; we’ve got funders who are willing to support these claims and we’ve got a regime that is very rigorous.”
She added that if successful, the case would act as a precedent to “empower” similar action globally.
Apple and Google both take 30% of the revenues generated from third-party apps downloaded from their stores, a figure which has spurred outrage among developers forced into these terms due to the dominance of iOS and Android in the smartphone market.
A group of these developers, including Spotify, Epic Games and Deezer, have formed the Coalition for App Fairness (CAF), a lobbying body to advocate for more competition-friendly practices in the app market. Some of CAF’s members are involved closely with related litigation.
Speaking on the UKTN Podcast, Gene Burrus, global policy council for CAF, said: “The CMA is definitely a more than capable regulator and they’ve set up a team that has both the experience and the expertise at this point on these markets to get the job done in a good way I think.”
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