Apple: No, the App Store Is Not a Monopoly

Apple has urged a U.S. District Court judge to dismiss a lawsuit claiming it has a monopoly over iOS apps, saying it has done no wrong.

At a Tuesday hearing, Apple argued that requiring developers to sell their apps through its iTunes App Store and nowhere else is not an antitrust violation, nor is charging devs a 30 percent cut of their proceeds for distibution. Just because there are no third-party storefronts peddling discounted iPhone apps doesn’t mean Apple is abusing a monopoly position over iOS apps. The company doesn’t set the price for paid applications.

The plaintiffs in the case brought their suit against Apple in 2011, claiming that their inability to legally buy iPhone apps from anywhere but the App Store was proof that Apple is a monopolist.

But Apple, which has fended off similar lawsuits in the past — specifically one that accused it of creating a music-download monopoly with iTunes — says the sort of vertical integration it has created between the iTunes App Store and its iOS devices is perfectly legal. As Apple attorney Dan Wall said during yesterday’s hearing, “There’s nothing illegal about creating a system that is closed in a sense.”