Apple Ends Lawsuit With A Settlement That Accused The Company Of Monopoly In The App Store

A lawsuit that was filed against leading tech giant Apple by a known developer and critic of the App Store has now been settled with a settlement.

Kosta Eleftheriou filed the case in March last year and continued to argue how the leading iPhone maker made it so hard for developers like him to sell apps such as Flicktype through the App Store. The news came at a time when it appeared the firm had lost its interest in gaining hold of the technology.

The lawsuit spoke in detail about how the firm was taking advantage of its great power which was nothing less than a monopoly in the tech market. As a leading iPhone maker and the owner of the App Store, it could very easily crush all types of developers competing by forcing them to pay high fees.

It also felt the firm was very selective in its applications of constraints that couldn’t be justified. Then there were accusations of the tech giant doing very little or nothing to prevent the uprising of copycat applications involved in scams. These were the ones that tracked the users of his particular app which is equivalent to swipe-themed keyboards for Apple’s watch.

The lawsuit was removed when the developer’s firm called Kpaw filed a request to do so during the early part of the summer of this year. There was no direct response by Apple about this settlement or the topic in general yet.

Speaking during an interview that was held with The Verge, it was revealed by the developer stated that he didn’t have anything to say about the settlement or what emotions he had on the topic.

At the same time, he did offer plenty of suggestions regarding what the iPhone maker could do to help better the App Store in the future. And most of them he claims are a part of an article written by his good friend Sean Hollister last year. The article is all about things that Apple could participate in that would show the world that it cares. Hence, by reading and understanding what’s written, Apple could really do itself a favor, he believed.

From this particular list, there is information about how the App Review team may be better improved and how the company’s leading applications could be up to date. At the same time, there was particular mention of how people could be refunded when scammed.

As of now, Apple is trying to better itself on this front. For instance, it was seen bringing back its Report Button. This would assist users who find scammy applications. There are also plenty of changes being made to the firm’s auto-renewal system for subscriptions, which many including Eleftheriou felt needed to be removed.

Users needed to get prompted to make renewals each time payments were required and due. Now, the company says it will allow subscriptions to renew automatically, even when a small increase in prices occurred.

There were some more suggestions of how Apple would be more transparent regarding why applications were being removed. According to him, whenever a respective App Store URL was visited for apps not being present across the store, information must be provided why a particular app had been removed.

The reason could be anything like the developer removing it themselves or if some form of violation had taken place such as rules linked to fake reviews. This way, many would come to know more about the various scams occurring on a routine basis.

Also, as users, many people would be aware of how careful they needed to be while browsing through various kinds of applications.


H/T: TC

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