US Law ‘Properly Applies’ to French-Resident iOS Developers, They Say

French-resident and all iOS developers “enrich Apple greatly, both by enabling it to sell more expensive hardware and by paying it super-high fees in order to get their digital products to end users,” said individual developers Figaro and L’Equipe, plus Le Geste, an association of publishers of online content and services, in an opposition Friday (docket 4:22-cv-04437) in US. District Court for Northern California in Oakland to Apple’s motion to dismiss their Dec. 2 first amended complaint (see 2212210037). Yet Apple “resorts to calling plaintiffs ‘opportunists’ for having the audacity to challenge its anticompetitive abuses” in the Northern California forum, and under the U.S. and California laws, “that Apple chose to govern disputes,” said the developers. As the plaintiffs allege, Apple’s anticompetitive behavior “affected U.S. commerce and trade directly, which in turn led directly to plaintiffs’ injuries, given their participation in U.S. domestic commerce,” they said. “Accordingly, U.S. antitrust law properly applies to the anticompetitive acts and injuries alleged.” The developers have “properly alleged monetary injury giving rise to restitution,” under California’s Unfair Competition Law, they said. “Accordingly, their UCL claims are not subject to dismissal, particularly at this stage of the case.”