Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, August 24 (Xinhua)-- Apple has strongly denied that App Store has monopoly control over iPhone apps, but the company's ability to unilaterally close developer accounts without explanation constitutes a typical antitrust case.

The Apple Developer Program (ADP) account of a small game developer was terminated by Apple for no reason and could not appeal because it was not told which charges needed to be resolved. The developer took Apple to court. After losing five months of sales, the account was finally restored, but still without any explanation or apology.

The plaintiff, Digital Will, a Japan-based software solution developer, digital marketing agent, game publisher and product innovation lab that develops products such as digital games and applications, is a small business with only six employees whose income and livelihood depend in large part on its ability to distribute its digital products through Apple's App Store.

Around March 26, 2022, without warning, the plaintiff received a templated message from Apple's App Store audit department that Apple determined that Digital Will's ADP membership was "used for dishonest or fraudulent activities" and that the plaintiff's ADP account was "marked for deletion." According to the template message, Apple found that Digital Will's ADP account was suspected of being "associated with a terminated or soon-to-be-terminated developer account, which is a direct violation of Apple Developer Program License Agreement (ADPLA)".

Crucially, Apple's message to Digital Will did not identify any terminated or unterminated accounts that were said to be related to Digital Will accounts. In fact, Apple's news did not provide any specific facts, nor did it indicate that Digital Will was involved in any wrongdoing that violated ADPLA.

The source further said that Digital Will can appeal within 14 days, as long as it provides a written statement detailing the problems identified by Apple, what specific measures the plaintiff will take to resolve them, as well as any new information to clarify the issue. However, it is impossible for Digital Will to respond to "the problems pointed out by Apple" because Apple did not point out any specific problems. It is worth noting and important that the plaintiff's ADP membership has never been used for dishonest or fraudulent activities.

Because developers don't know what they've done wrong, they can't meet Apple's appeal requirements to explain what happened and how to solve the problem. As a result, the appeal was rejected by Apple. Five months after the Digital Will app was removed from App Store and two months after it sent a lawyer's letter to Apple, Apple restored the account without giving any explanation.

The company estimates its total losses and costs at more than $765000 (CTOnews.com Note: currently about 5.585 million yuan) and claims from Apple. Apple will not comment on the case because the lawsuit is ongoing.

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