Apple faces U.K. class action lawsuit claiming overcharges on App Store

Apple is facing a U.K. class action lawsuit over claims that the company overcharged nearly 20 million U.K. customers for App Store purchases.

Ellen Milligan for Bloomberg News:

Apple’s 30% fee is “excessive” and “unlawful” the claimants said in a press release Tuesday. The claim, filed at London’s Competition Appeal Tribunal on Monday, calls for the U.S. firm to compensate U.K. iPhone and iPad users for years of alleged overcharging. They estimate that Apple could face paying out in excess of 1.5 billion pounds ($2.1 billion).

“We believe this lawsuit is meritless and welcome the opportunity to discuss with the court our unwavering commitment to consumers and the many benefits the App Store has delivered to the U.K.’s innovation economy,” Apple said in an emailed statement.

“The commission charged by the App Store is very much in the mainstream of those charged by all other digital marketplaces,” Apple said. “In fact, 84% of apps on the App Store are free and developers pay Apple nothing. And for the vast majority of developers who do pay Apple a commission because they are selling a digital good or service, they are eligible for a commission rate of 15%.”

MacDailyNews Take: We think the fees that Target, Macy’s, and other retailers want to charge us for carrying our T-shirts and mousepads is “excessive” and “unlawful,” too!

We should be able to use Target’s physical stores, roof, heat, cooling, electricity, floor space, staff, parking lot, their online store, server capacity, storage, more electricity, staff, etc., but we want to keep 100% of our sales.

Naturally, anyone who buys our t-shirts and mousepads in a retailer’s physical or online stores should be able to sue them because their “excessive” and “unlawful” fees caused customers to be “overcharged.”

Because fairness.

And stuff.

What judge wouldn’t side with us?