Developer Accuses Apple of Abuse of Power in Acquisition Negotiations

Developer Kosta Eleftheriou has sued Apple for misusing its power over the App Store to thwart him and drive down his company’s purchase price. The developer and Apple were negotiating a takeover of its keyboard app.

Eleftheriou claims in the indictment that he entered into talks with Apple in January 2019 about an acquisition of his company Kpaw because of its FlickType keyboard for the Apple Watch. Just as negotiations began, Apple removed FlickType from the App Store. The reason the company gave is that keyboards for the Apple Watch are not allowed. It is unclear why a competitor was allowed to enter the App Store. Apps with other purposes that integrated FlickType were also allowed to enter the App Store without any problems.

In January 2020, Apple suddenly approved FlickType, with no changes on the part of the developer. It quickly became the highest-earning app in the App Store, according to the developer, yielding $130,000 in a month. Negotiations about the takeover were no longer ongoing.

The developer accuses Apple of selectively blocking its app, using its monopoly over the App Store to get it to accept a low price for sale. He also said that Apple did not act quickly and properly with reports of fraudulent apps that pretended to be a Watch keyboard and that appeared in the App Store. Eleftheriou previously worked for Fleksy, which worked on Android Wear, among other things, and which was bought by Pinterest. He is seeking damages in the lawsuit. Apple has not yet responded to the complaint.