Proton bashes Apple and joins antitrust suit that seeks to throw the App Store wide open – Source: go.theregister.com

Secure comms biz Proton has joined a lawsuit that alleges Apple’s anticompetitive ways are harming developers, consumers, and privacy.

Proton is a Switzerland-based (for now) provider of encrypted communications services and on Monday filed a legal complaint [PDF] against Apple, claiming the iGiant is abusing its control of iOS and the App Store in ways that reduce competition.

Apple has been fighting legal battles on this front for some time. Most notably, Epic Games sued in 2020 to try and allow itself and other app makers to sell its wares for use on Apple devices through channels other than Apple’s own App Store and payment systems. While Apple mostly won that case, the court said it had to allow third-party developers to inform customers of payment systems other than Apple’s own. (A judge recently questioned whether Apple has complied and pondered whether the company is in contempt of court.)

In Europe, regulators have taken a harder line, forcing the mega-biz to allow sales of iOS apps on third-party app stores.

Proton would like to see that happen in the US and has therefore asked the US District court for Northern California to require Apple to get out of the way and give app developers direct access to customers. The company’s filing suggests making that happen by requiring Apple to allow alternative app stores, expose those stores through its own Apple App Store, plus allowing developers to disable Apple’s in-app payment system and to gain fill access to Apple APIs.

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• Apple’s interoperability efforts aren’t meeting spirit or letter of EU law, advocacy groups argue
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Rather than suing anew, Proton is joining a group of Korean developers that took Apple to a US court in May [PDF] on similar grounds.

“We believe that Apple’s conduct constitutes further violations of US antitrust law,” Proton said in a blog post.

“Without this case, Apple could get away with behavior in the US that is already outlawed in the European Union. If this were to happen, American consumers, and developers focused on the American market, would have to pay higher prices for fewer choices, and be left at a disadvantage.”

Proton’s complaint covers many of the same issues raised by Epic and other app makers, and adds a novel argument that Apple’s system also harms user privacy. The Swiss company argues that developers of free apps usually harvest user data and sell that to cover their bills. Companies like Proton that don’t collect or sell user data have no choice but to charge subscriptions for revenue. Apple’s pricing model particularly penalizes these companies by taking a cut of annual subscriptions sold on its App Store.

We don’t question Apple’s right to act on behalf of authoritarians for the sake of profit

The post also revisits Proton’s 2020 run-in with Apple that saw the iBiz reject an update to Proton’s VPN after the Swiss company pointed out it could be used to “unblock censored web sites.” Apple eventually relented but the episode shows how Apple puts profit before privacy, Proton argued.

“We don’t question Apple’s right to act on behalf of authoritarians for the sake of profit, but Apple’s monopoly over iOS app distribution means it can enforce this perverse policy on all app developers, forcing them to also be complicit,” it wrote.

The blog post also points out that Apple has removed VPNs and other privacy tools from the App Stores it operates in markets like Russia and China – regimes that aren’t huge fans of free flows of information. For example, in Russia last year it banished 60 VPNs from its local App Store, bringing the total number of removed applications to nearly 100.

Apple had no comment at the time of publication. ®