Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California just denied in part--and in economic terms, almost completely--a U.S. antitrust class action brought on behalf of leading French publishers such as Le Figaro and L'Équipe (about that one, see my personal note toward the end).
Here's the decision, which I'll explain briefly:
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23977262-23-09-13-order-on-motion-to-dismiss-le-figaro-et-al-v-apple: Société du Figaro et al. v. Apple (case no. 4:22-cv-4437-YGR, N.D. Cal.): Order granting part and denying in part APple's motion to dismiss with partial leave to amend
The court gives the French publishers three weeks (until October 4) to amend their complaint, but they can only amend limited parts that won't change anything about the fact that there's no more serious money left for them to be made even if they won. But in order to turn this into something that has significant economic potential, they need a successful appeal.
In this first reaction, I'm not going to take a position on whether I agree with Judge Gonzalez Rogers. I disagreed with key parts of her Epic Games v. Apple ruling (which is now going to be appealed to the Supreme Court), but her dismissal of Pistacchio v. Apple, a class action over Apple Arcade, was well-reasoned (at least the market definition part).
The introductory part of the decision indicates between the lines a bit of an annoyance with the fact that certain class-action lawyers brought this case shortly after setting a U.S. developer class action against Apple over largely the same issues. This here looked like a double-dipping (as far as the lawyers--not the parties--are concerned). But that does not, in and of itself, render the entire case meritless.
The economically biggest part is that Judge YGR does not allow the French publishers to sue in U.S. court for damages relating to foreign sales. Those publishers obviously have some U.S. revenues, as there are French expats and other people who read one or more of those publications. But obviously most of the money they make is generated in France, followed by other French-speaking parts of the world (such as Québec).
If they go ahead now and take this to trial, the maximum damages award they could ever realistically hope for would still not offset litigation costs. A victory would be somewhat symbolic. The only value they could get value out of a win related to their U.S. revenues would be that this might persuade a French court to rule against Apple in a similar way. But is that going to be worth it? I doubt it.
Earlier this year I highlighted the problem that Apple doesn'T want to be liable in any jurisdiction. Epic Games experienced the same. If app makers sue outside the U.S., Apple says only U.S. courts have jurisdiction, and in the U.S., Apple points to the Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvements Act (FTAIA), which is a law that was enacted to prevent extraterritorial overreach by U.S. courts.
Based on this U.S. decision, the French publishers and others will find it easier to convince foreign courts that they have jurisdiction over App Store abuse claims relating to those non-U.S. markets, despite a choice-of-jurisdiction clause in the contract Apple imposes on app developers. So there may be something positive here.
Another potential strategy for the French publishers would be to bring in additional plaintiffs on the occasion of the amendment, which could be publishers with very substantial U.S. revenues.
When I first commented on the French publishers' U.S. class action, I found one part of the complaint particularly intriguing: they raised the issue of App Tracking Transparency (ATT), a money and power grab by Apple under the pretext of privacy. Judge Gonzalez Rogers allows the plaintiffs to amend their ATT claim if they bring an amended complaint. That may now be another reason to widen the class definition and include publishers with substantial U.S. sales (an amendmend that Apple would presumably oppose, but the plaintiffs could try to get it approved by the court). For publishers, ATT is a huge problem. So maybe the focus will change a little bit. However, the alternative would be to drop this one and bring a new one with U.S. publishers (or UK and other publishers with substantial U.S. revenues) on board from the start, and with a focus on ATT.
I guess something will happen. I don't expect this complaint to just be dropped at this stage without an appeal, amendment, or a new complaint with an ATT focus (or even a combination of two or more measures of that kind).
Personal note: As I mentioned L'Équipe: while I currently have no paying subscription to any media outlet, simply because there are too many around the globe that are relevant to me at different times, L'Équipe is actually one of two publications I plan to subscribe to for the purpose of brushing up my French. I actually learned most of my Spanish from sports newspapers AS, Marca, and Sport. If I subscribed to it through their Android apps, Google would tax my subscription fees...
