Apple to Face Antitrust Lawsuit by Rival Excluded From App Store

Apple Inc. lost its bid to exit antitrust litigation over claims it bans competing app distribution platforms from the iOS App Store, when a federal judge in Oakland, Calif., ruled that allegations of increasingly aggressive policies brought the case within the statute of limitations.

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers let part of the lawsuit move forward Thursday, saying it’s plausible the four-year filing window was propped open by software changes in 2018 and 2019 that transformed what had been hurdles for competing platforms like the Cydia App Store into an outright ban.

“Within a year from this final exclusion, plaintiff brought this lawsuit,” the judge wrote. “To the extent plaintiff’s claims rely on Apple’s technological updates to exclude Cydia from being able to operate altogether, those claims are timely.”

The allegations echo some of the broader antitrust challenges confronting Apple and other Silicon Valley giants that run dominant app platforms, including Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Steam Corp., which operates the Valve store for gaming.

Although the legal theories vary, the court cases generally involve allegations that Apple and the others deployed an array of illegal tactics to corner the app distribution market and the related market for in-app purchases.

They include lawsuits brought by Fortnite maker Epic Games Inc. and dating app developer Match Group Inc., along with proposed class actions on behalf of consumers and developers. Apple is appealing an order in the Epic case that would require costly changes to the App Store.

The ruling Thursday came about five months after Rogers tentatively dismissed the Cydia case from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, saying the suit failed to offer any specifics about “overt acts” that might have extended the limitations period.

She reiterated portions of that decision, again rejecting allegations that Apple has continuously restarted the filing clock with every consumer sale and developer contract.

That theory “is not supported by the case law and it effectively swallows the statute of limitations rule,” the judge wrote.

Cydia is represented by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP. Apple is represented by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP.

The case is SaurikIT v. Apple Inc., N.D. Cal., No. 20-cv-8733, 5/26/22.