- Proton has joined an American lawsuit against Apple for competitive practice
- Suit seeks both changes in the App Store -Cosystem and monetary damage
- On April 30, 2025, an American judge found Apple guilty of violation
The Swiss privacy company Proton has sued Apple of competitive practice, which the company warns, undermines freedom and democracy, has hurt privacy’s first companies and leads to a worse user experience.
The provider behind one of the best VPN, secure email, encrypted calendar and password services, Proton, has joined an existing lawsuit in the United States against Apple on Monday, June 30, 2025.
The case filed in the US district law of the northern district of California is looking for changes in the App Store ecosystem as well as monetary damage. The latter, said Proton, will be donated to organizations fighting for democracy and human rights via nonprofit behind the company, Proton Foundation.
Why Proton sues Apple
“Apple’s monopoly management of software distribution on iOS devices presents a myriad of problems to consumers, businesses and communities as a whole,” Proton wrote in a blog post.
“Anti-monopoly laws are found because the power gifted by monopoly status inevitably leads to abuse. In the case of oligarchic tech giants, these abuses have major consequences for society, and it is important for the future of the Internet that they are being treated now.”
Specifically, Proton claims that Apple’s policies favor a surveillance capitalism model that hurts privacy and privacy.
Apple not only requires all developers to pay an annual fee to be in the App Store, but it also takes 30% cut from all subscription payments made via iOS apps.
On April 30, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers found this behavior to violate her federal injunction of illegal monopoly issued in 2021 in the Epic Games case.
In fact, the big tech giant had to stop competitive practice by giving third-party developers more power to redirect users to cheaper non-apple payment options.
On that occasion, Proton’s founder and CEO, Andy Yen, said the company could lower its pricing by up to 30%if Apple was finally forced to remove his tax in the App Store.
In response to the recent court decision in the US against Apple’s illegal purchase monopoly in the app, @protonPrivacy will finally be allowed to let iOS users buy subscriptions outside the App Store. No Apple tax means we will lower prices for users by up to 30%.1 May 2025
Proton also warns that Apple’s overall control over the App Store has danger for app -App -distribution across different markets.
“Apple argues that this control is needed for security reasons. But the reality is that this has made Apple the only failure of free expression and a tool for dictatorships,” the provider said.
By 2024 alone, Apple, for example, removed at least 60 VPN apps from Russia’s App Store at the request of authorities, a total of almost 100 applications that are not available at Apple’s market in Russia.
We seek to permanently end anti-competitive behavior in the App Store
Proton
Researchers at AppleCensorship also found a staggering 11,026 inaccessible apps in China’s App Store that affect sensitive categories such as Virtual Private Network (VPN) – ProtonVPN included – other privacy software (such as protonmail, signal and duckduckgo), news apps, social media and even dating application.
Proton also accuses Apple of “intentionally paralyzing third-party apps competing with Apple Services,” Ultimately, Apple users deliver a worse internet experience.
For example, Apple allegedly prevents users from using the Proton Calendar app as a default setting, Proton said, despite the fact that this interoperability is available to E email services.
What is the next?
As mentioned earlier, Proton has joined an existing lawsuit filed on May 23 against Apple by a group representing Korean app developers.
Still, the trial is not just about money. The decision to participate in this lawsuit against such a technical Behemoth said Proton stems from the obligation to improve the condition of the Internet by changing the Apple App Store policies once and for all.
“We seek to permanently end anti -competitive behavior in the App Store, and we participate in this trial to ensure that any future settlement enforces real changes in Apple’s practice and policies for the benefit of all consumers, developers and competition and not just cosmetic changes,” Proton said.
We approached Apple for comments, but we are still waiting for a response at the time of publication.
