Judge Allows Cydia Lawsuit Against Apple to Proceed

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has allowed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple, filed by rival App Store Cydia, to proceed.

Cydia was created by saurik, also known as Jay Freeman. The popular app served as an app store for jailbroken iPhones but was never allowed on non-jailbroken devices. In 2020, saurik sued Apple alleging the company had established an illegal monopoly over iOS app distribution.

Apple argued that the lawsuit made claims outside the statute of limitations and requested it be dismissed. The judge agreed but allowed Cydia to bring a new complaint. This new complaint has been accepted, reports Reuters.


Cydia's lawyers argued in the amended lawsuit that Apple's technology updates between 2018 and 2021 were "overt" acts that harmed iOS app distributors such as Cydia. In Thursday's ruling, Gonzalez Rogers said "to the extent plaintiff's claims rely on Apple's technological updates to exclude Cydia from being able to operate altogether, those claims are timely."

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More specifically, the FAC also alleges the nature of these updates, namely that Apple’s
2018 and 2019 technological restrictions included the inclusion of “runtime code modification
prevention, pointer authentication, physical map codesigning, memory tagging extensions, and
other control mechanisms” which “specifically target[ed] and prevent[ed] Cydia” from competing
with Apple. (FAC ¶ 76.) The 2018 changes allegedly foreclosed competition on iPhones produced
September 2018 and afterwards, while the 2019 changes allegedly made it so that Cydia, for the
first time, could no longer operate on pre-2018 iPhones. (FAC ¶ 76.) Within a year from this final
exclusion, plaintiff brought this lawsuit. Thus, plaintiff has plausibly alleged that Apple engaged
in changes in its technological updates, which occurred within the four years preceding the filing
of the lawsuit. Accordingly, to the extent plaintiff’s claims rely on Apple’s technological updates
to exclude Cydia from being able to operate altogether, those claims are timely.
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Gonzalez Rogers has given Apple until mid-June to respond to Cydia's complaint.

Notably, Gonzalez Rogers also presided over the Epic vs Apple antitrust lawsuit, ruling largely in favor of Apple. That case is now pending in the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.


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