It is well known that, at least by legal and official means, the only method to obtain applications on an iPhone or iPad is through the App Store.
Cydia, a popular alternative app store for devices with jailbreakinitiated legal proceedings against Apple, accusing the company of maintaining an illegal monopoly on the distribution of applications for its operating system.
Cydia seeks to compete on equal terms with the App Store
Against Apple’s rules and violating its warranty, it is possible to unlock a higher level of permissions on an iOS device. This is accomplished through a procedure called jailbreakwhich allows, among other things, to install apps through alternative channels to the official App Store.
Among the most popular alternative app store options for iOS is Cydiawhich unlike the .ipa files used by Apple, distributes apps through the APT management system in .deb format, just like Debian and other derived GNU/Linux distributions.
Over time, which led to the widespread use of this tool, Apple has tightened its restrictions, avoiding in most cases to apply jailbreak with ease on newer devices.
Given this scenario, SaurikIT LLC, the company behind Cydia, initiated a legal process last year, accusing Apple of monopolistic and illegal practices, with respect to its iOS app distribution system. This first lawsuit was rejected, for being presented outside the pertinent statute of limitations. However, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, a federal district judge in Oakland, California, allowed Cydia to file a correction to her complaint.
The amended lawsuit was filed in January in federal court in California. A month later, Apple’s lawyers called the claims in Cydia’s lawsuit “time-barred” and “obsolete,” urging Judge Gonzalez Rogers to dismiss the complaint and bar any further efforts to amend it. Despite this attempt, this requirement was rejected, opening the way for the legal process to begin to unfold, according to the agency. Reuters.
In this amended lawsuit, Cydia’s lawyers argued that the iOS updates released by Apple between 2018 and 2021 were “overt” acts that harmed iOS app distributors like Cydia. In her most recent ruling, Judge González Rogers stated that “To the extent that plaintiffs’ claims are based on Apple’s technology upgrades to exclude Cydia from being able to operate together, those claims are timely”.
According to text of this legal accusation, Cydia “seeks to open markets for iOS app distribution and iOS app payment processing to those who want to compete fairly with Apple and recover the enormous damages Apple caused Cydia”.
Both Apple and Cydia lawyers declined the option of issuing public statements immediately. Under the court’s mandate, Apple must respond to this lawsuit in mid-June.
