Apple Found Guilty of Overcharging App Store Fees in the UK

Apple lost a major class-action lawsuit in the UK in which it was found to have grossly overcharged App Store developers. The firm will pay a fine of about £1.5 billion, or roughly $2 billion, to compensate the developers it overcharged.

The ruling against Apple comes via the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), which said that the Big Tech giant abused its market position from October 2015 through the end of 2020 by blocking competition in the app distribution market and “charging excessive and unfair prices” in fees to developers.

The case was brought against Apple by a developer who argued that the company made “exorbitant profits” by shutting out competition, and it went on to encompass a class of millions of developers and users in the UK because many developers passed Apple’s fees onto consumers.

Interesting, the tribunal did a bit of math to determine how much Apple had overcharged developers: It said that they were overcharged the difference between a 17.5 percent fee and the 30 percent fee Apple usually charged. A hearing next month will determine the exact amount Apple will pay in damages. And a similar case against Google for the same abuses will begin in October 2026.

Apple said it would appeal the ruling.