After over 13 years of legal proceedings, a pivotal antitrust lawsuit against Apple, which had achieved class-action status in 2024, has been decertified. The decision came after the court identified substantial errors in determining the affected user base.
In 2024, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers granted class-action status to the lawsuit, narrowing the affected group to individuals who spent $10 or more on apps or in-app content. This move was intended to streamline the case by focusing on a specific subset of users.
However, subsequent analyses revealed significant inaccuracies in the plaintiffs’ methodology for identifying affected users. An expert hired by Apple highlighted alarming errors in the calculations. For instance, the plaintiffs’ count included duplicate entries, such as Robert Pepper and Rob Pepper, despite identical addresses and payment information. Additionally, to minimize the count of unaffected users, the plaintiffs consolidated over 40,000 payment records for individuals named Kim, regardless of whether they were the same person.
These discrepancies led Judge Gonzalez Rogers to decertify the class-action status, stating that the plaintiffs failed to provide a model capable of reliably showing classwide injury and damages in one stroke.
The lawsuit alleged that Apple maintained an unlawful monopoly over the App Store, preventing competition from third-party stores and inflating app prices. This argument has been central to multiple legal challenges against Apple, especially amid increasing scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Justice regarding potential antitrust violations.
In response to the decertification, an Apple spokesperson stated:
We’re pleased the Court recognized the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate the alleged harm to consumers and decertified the class. We continue to invest significantly to make the App Store a safe and trusted place for users to discover apps and a great business opportunity for developers.
The lawsuit, initiated in December 2011, has faced numerous challenges over the years. Estimates suggest that class-wide damages could have amounted to billions of dollars. It remains uncertain whether the plaintiffs will seek to reestablish class-action status following this setback.
