App Store alternative Cydia gets go-ahead to proceed with antitrust lawsuit against Apple

(Representative Image)

Cydia's antitrust lawsuit against Apple will now be moving forward after Apple unsuccessfully appealed to the California Federal Court in the US to dismiss the case.

As reported by Reuters, Apple was sued by the creator of alternative app store Cydia in late 2020. Jay Freeman, the creator, had accused Apple of maintaining an unlawful monopoly on software distribution on its platform.

Initially, the case was dismissed on the grounds that Freeman's claims were outside of the statue of limitations but they gave him the opportunity to amend his complaint and file a fresh one in January 2022.

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Now, the new case is moving forward, with the California federal court giving Freeman the go-ahead, ignoring Apple's motion to dismiss it.

The fresh appeal states that Apple's implemented changes to the App Store between 2018 and 2021 made it difficult for alternative app stores to provide apps, usable on Apple devices.

It also states that technical restrictions imposed by Apple, such as blocking runtime modification, pointer authentication, physical map codesigning, memory tagging extensions and others, were designed to target third-party app stores from delivering functional apps.

The suit also highlights Apple's contractual restrictions, which lock developers out of alternative payment mechanisms. Cydia is looking for damages and injunctive relief. The court has given Apple 21 days to respond.

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Apple tried to get the case dismissed by calling the claims "time-barred" and "stale", urging the court to dismiss the complaint and barring Freeman and Cydia from making further emendations to the complaint.

The court ruled that Cydia's "claims rely on Apple’s technological updates to exclude Cydia from being able to operate altogether, those claims are timely".

The app store Cydia was launched for Apple devices in 2008, predating Apple's own App Store by a few months. Its controversial approach to hosting apps that can jailbreak Apple devices to install services from outside the App Store brought it under scrutiny. Cydia shut down paid services on its platform in 2018.