In December, a court dismissed a lawsuit from BlueMail developer Blix that claimed Apple engaged in monopoly-like behavior in favoring its own apps over third-party competitors, and that Sign in with Apple infringed upon its patent.
A federal judge in Delaware has now granted Apple’s motion to dismiss Blix’s antitrust claims for the second time.
Blix was one of the founding members of the Coalition for App Fairness, set up to fight the 30% cut Apple took from the App Store. In this month’s ruling, the judge said that Blix did not “adequately and plausibly allege how any action Apple is taking is harming competition.” The judge explained:
While Blix had tried to liken Apple’s behavior to Microsoft’s past behavior of “squashing the competitive threats posed by emerging middleware competitors,” the judge ruled that these claims were “unpersuasive.”
Apple’s current policy of requiring Sign In With Apple whenever any SSO product is offered permits new competitors and competition (including Blix) because it does not foreclose the use of other SSOs. Allowing competition is the opposite of unlawfully constraining competition, so, again, Blix has failed to state a claim.
But while this specific case represents a win for Apple, there is still a significant amount of antitrust pressure facing the company in the US and elsewhere. We are also still awaiting a decision from the judge in the Apple vs. Epic Games trial over the App Store and antitrust concerns.
Blix, a member of the Coalition for App Fairness and frequent complainer to press and regulators, alleged false conspiracy theories and anti-competitive claims against Apple. The court correctly rejected these claims and threw out Blix’s case. This case demonstrates that Apple has consistently acted legally by introducing its own innovative products and features that promote competition.
