Ruling Opens the Door for App Store Lawsuits

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It might seem an odd thing to take a company to court over, but if you’re an iPhone user frustrated by the fact that the only place you can go to get apps for your handset is the App Store – well, there are only 2.2m to choose from – a US Federal Appeal Court ruling means you can, in theory, sue Apple for that fact.

Previously, a lower court had agreed with Apple’s argument that consumers don’t have the right to sue because they are technically buying apps from developers, but yesterday, Judge William A. Fletcher ruled that, as iPhone users pay for their apps through Apple, they do have indeed this right.

The ruling stems from a 2012 lawsuit brought by a group of iPhone owners who accused the company of being anti-competitive.

It now opens the door for anyone with the time – and money – to take Apple to court. We can’t see it being a particularly long queue…