Judge says Apple can’t dismiss Cydia’s amended antitrust lawsuit

Apple’s attempt to dismiss an amended antitrust lawsuit by the creator of Cydia, an app store for jailbroken iPhones (via Reuters). California District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers denied Apple’s request to dismiss the case Thursday, giving the company 21 days to respond to Cydia’s resubmitted complaint.

Cydia developer Jay Freeman (also used by the username Saurik) filed a lawsuit against Apple in 2020. The complaint alleges that Apple “unlawfully acquired and maintained monopoly power” in iOS app distribution and payments, which ultimately resulted in ” Deny “third-party app stores” the ability to compete with the App Store. Cydia appeared before the Apple App Store existed, and it allowed users to find and download third-party apps for jailbroken devices. Freeman closed the Cydia store in 2018.

Judge Gonzalez Rogers – the same judge who delivered a mixed ruling in the Epic vs. Apple – dismissed the case in January, citing that Freeman’s claims were outside the four-year statute of limitations for antitrust cases. Gonzalez Rogers still gave Freeman the opportunity to amend the complaint, which he did.

The new complaint says that from 2018 to 2021, Apple implemented “more aggressive” changes in iOS that allegedly prevented Cydia and other alternative app stores from providing “usable” apps for iPhones. Apple again sought to close the re-referred complaint on the grounds that the allegations occurred outside the statute of limitations, but Gonzalez Rodger denied the dismissal request. the edge I contacted Apple to request comment but there was no immediate response.

In 2020, Epic Games filed a lawsuit against the following Apple fortniteRemove from the App Store – Kick Apple fortnite To offer an alternative payment option, to enable Epic to get around Apple’s up to 30 percent commission you get from in-app purchases. Epic filed a similar lawsuit against Google around the same time, with a trial set to take place in 2023. Earlier this month, Match Group, the company behind Tinder, OkCupid and Hinge also sued Google over payment restrictions. own on the Play Store.

In addition to app developers, Apple has come under scrutiny from government agencies. While the Netherlands has imposed a series of fines against the company for preventing Dutch dating apps from using its billing systems, South Korea has passed a law requiring both Apple and Google to allow developers to integrate third-party payment processors. The United States and the European Union are clamping down on the power of big tech companies, too, with the European Union due to enact a digital markets law next year, and the United States making progress on an Open Application Markets law designed to boost competition in mobile computing.