Sarah Perez, TechCrunch:
Kosta Eleftheriou, a co-founder of the Fleksy keyboard app later sold to Pinterest in an acqui-hire deal, has been calling attention to Apple App Store issues like fake reviews, ratings and subscription scams, as well as malicious clone apps, after his own app, FlickType, was targeted by scammers. Now, the developer is taking the next step in his App Store crusade: he’s filing a lawsuit against Apple.
Kosta started the ball rolling with this widely read Twitter thread from January:
The App Store has a big problem👇
— Kosta Eleftheriou (@keleftheriou) January 31, 2021
You: an honest developer, working hard to improve your IAP conversions.
Your competitor: a $2M/year scam running rampant.
1/🧵
More on the lawsuit:
The suit, which the developer claims was filed Wednesday in California Superior Court in Santa Clara county, alleges that Apple enticed developers to build applications for its App Store — the only place iOS applications can be legally sold — by claiming it’s a safe and trustworthy place, but doesn’t protect legitimate app developers against scammers profiting from their hard work.
What’s more, the suit says, Apple is disincentivized to do so because scammers are generating revenue for Apple via their use of subscriptions, which involve a revenue share with Apple.
This is a major ramp-up from a Twitter complaint, no matter how much publicity it got. A story worth following.
Here’s a link to the lawsuit.