{"id":31920,"date":"2021-03-18T20:09:45","date_gmt":"2021-03-19T00:09:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=31920"},"modified":"2021-03-18T21:00:35","modified_gmt":"2021-03-19T01:00:35","slug":"flicktype-developer-sues-apple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2021\/03\/18\/flicktype-developer-sues-apple\/","title":{"rendered":"FlickType Developer Sues Apple"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2021\/3\/18\/22336380\/apple-app-store-scam-lawsuit-kosta-eleftheriou-flicktype-ios-developer\">Nick Statt<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nickstatt\/status\/1372522920904425472\">tweet<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2021\/03\/18\/apple-hit-with-lawsuit-from-developer\/\">MacRumors<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/news.ycombinator.com\/item?id=26504158\">Hacker News<\/a>):<\/p>\n<blockquote cite=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2021\/3\/18\/22336380\/apple-app-store-scam-lawsuit-kosta-eleftheriou-flicktype-ios-developer\">\n<p>At the time he began <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2021\/2\/8\/22272849\/apple-app-store-scams-ios-fraud-reviews-ratings-flicktype\">accusing Apple of abetting App Store scams<\/a> early last month, Eleftheriou revealed that his FlickType app had been targeted by competing software he says either didn&rsquo;t work well or didn&rsquo;t work at all, and yet nonetheless chipped away at this sales and App Store rankings through false advertising and the purchase of fake reviews.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>In the complaint, Eleftheriou goes further into detail about what he claims is wrongful behavior from Apple, including alleged false advertising, breach of its developer agreement, and fraud. One notable claim involves Apple trying to acquire FlickType, after which Eleftheriou says he faced &ldquo;roadblock after roadblock&rdquo; to selling his software on the App Store. The complaint suggests Apple chose not to take action on scam and copycat apps in an effort to force Eleftheriou to sell his app to Apple.<\/p>\n<p>[&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p>Eleftheriou says he was approached by Marsden, who expressed interest in having Apple acquire his software to improve typing on the Apple Watch. Yet, the negotiations went quiet, and afterward, Eleftheriou claims Apple removed his FlickType keyboard app and refused to approve future versions as well as a note-taking variant, on what he thinks are suspicious grounds. [&#8230;] Meanwhile, many other wearable and mobile keyboard apps Eleftheriou characterizes as scams were also approved and allowed on the App Store.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<p>Previously:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/19\/apple-store-polices-irrationally-high-prices\/\">Apple Store Polices &ldquo;Irrationally High Prices&rdquo;<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/03\/scammy-keywatch-and-trezor-apps\/\">Scammy KeyWatch and Trezor Apps<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2020\/09\/24\/coalition-for-app-fairness\/\">Coalition for App Fairness<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2020\/08\/21\/wordpress-bug-fixes-blocked-over-iap\/\">WordPress Bug Fixes Blocked Over IAP<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2020\/08\/13\/epic-direct-payment\/\">Epic Direct Payment<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/19\/have-you-contributed-any-revenue\/\">Have You Contributed Any Revenue?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nick Statt (tweet, MacRumors, Hacker News): At the time he began accusing Apple of abetting App Store scams early last month, Eleftheriou revealed that his FlickType app had been targeted by competing software he says either didn&rsquo;t work well or didn&rsquo;t work at all, and yet nonetheless chipped away at this sales and App Store [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"2021-03-19T00:09:48Z","apple_news_api_id":"3ba1b784-4d22-45d2-8164-5e49ab890a89","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2021-03-19T01:00:38Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAg==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AO6G3hE0iRdKBZF5Jq4kKiQ","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[66,91,130,38,2045,31,1837,26,41,209,1212],"class_list":["post-31920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-acquisition","tag-appstore","tag-rejection","tag-apple","tag-flicktype","tag-ios","tag-ios-14","tag-iosapp","tag-lawsuit","tag-legal","tag-watchos"],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31920"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31926,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31920\/revisions\/31926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}