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Supreme Court: iPhone Owners Can Sue Apple Over App Store Policies

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court sided with four iPhone owners who contend the company has been inflating the prices on the App Store. Current antitrust laws allow the plaintiffs to recover three times the amount of damages.

 & Michael Kan Principal Reporter

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The Supreme Court is letting a group of consumers sue Apple for alleged monopolistic App Store policies.

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court sided with four iPhone owners who contend the company has been inflating prices on the App Store —which is currently the only official place to download apps for iOS devices.

All App Store developers must also pay the company a 30 percent cut of apps sales. This requirement, and the lack of alternatives, can force consumers to overpay for their apps, according to the iPhone owners, who filed their class-action lawsuit against Apple in 2011.

In its defense, Apple has been arguing the company doesn't set the prices on the App Store; instead, the iPhone owners should only be able to sue the individual sellers on the platform. However, the Supreme Court disagreed, saying the company's legal arguments were neither "persuasive economically or legally."

"Apple's theory would provide a roadmap for monopolistic retailers to structure transactions with manufacturers or suppliers so as to evade antirust claims by consumers," Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the opinion.

The Supreme Court's decision refrained from assessing the legal merits of the antitrust charges against Apple. But it does open the door for both consumers and app developers to sue the company over its alleged monopolistic iOS practices. Current antitrust laws allow the plaintiffs to recover three times the amount of damages.

The Supreme Court heard the case after a lower federal court ruled that the iPhone owners were "direct purchasers" from Apple when buying apps on the official App Store. In response, Apple wanted the Supreme Court to dismiss the lawsuit.

So far, the company hasn't commented on today's decision.

About Our Expert

Michael Kan

Michael Kan

Principal Reporter

My Experience

I've been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I'm currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country's technology sector.

Since 2020, I've covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I've combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink's cellular service.

I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.

I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I'm now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I'm always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.

The Best Tech I've Had:

  • My first video game console: a Nintendo Famicom
  • I loved my Sega Saturn despite PlayStation's popularity.
  • The iPod Video I received as a gift in college
  • Xbox 360 FTW
  • The Galaxy Nexus was the first smartphone I was proud to own.
  • The PC desktop I built in 2013, which still works to this day.

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