Apple gets more heat for its anti-competitive distribution methods concerning iOS apps
Tech giants like Apple have built a fortune by centralizing their authority and earnings and distributing their product and service networks to be as prominent in people’s lives as possible. Until recently, however, Apple has also showed an ability to tunnel-focus its efforts in order to remain relevant and up to date with what customers wanted, what mattered to them, and what they needed most from the digital giants on whom they relied.
Apple’s domineering control impedes cryptocurrency payments:
Despite persistent complaints from the Web3 sector for its unfavorable regulations, Apple is itself in legal soup. The regulations, which include exorbitant fees for cryptocurrency users, put the tech giant up for a losing battle.
A group of unhappy Apple customers, many of whom are also members of the crypto community, have launched a class-action complaint against Apple. In its case, the group accuses Apple of not extending its range of peer-to-peer payment systems and, in particular, of limiting crypto payments. The class action complaint, filed in federal court in California, alleges that the tech giant pushed applications like Venmo and Cash App into entering into agreements that hampered decentralized crypto capabilities.
According to the lawsuit, Apple uses its gatekeeper authority over the App Store and iOS platform to guarantee that new payment apps do not include features such as bitcoin wallets or transfers. According to the plaintiffs, this coordination allows Apple to inflate its costs and discourage innovation, which threatens its commissions on in-app sales.
The users who filed the lawsuit are seeking monetary damages for alleged overcharging as well as an injunction to prevent Apple from demanding that payment applications ban crypto tools.
An appeals court concluded against its restrictions prohibiting developers from referring customers to other payment methods in April. Because of Apple’s tight restrictions and revenue-sharing regulations, crypto applications have also had difficulty staying on the App Store.
However, Apple’s yet to issue a public response to this latest instance.
