Judge Throws Out Cydia's Lawsuit Against Apple - For Now - Macworld UK

District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers sides with Apple, but Jay Freeman has until 19 January to file an amended complaint.

In late 2020, Jay Freeman, also known as Saurik, filed a lawsuit against Apple in the District Court of Northern California.

Freeman is the creator of the alternative app store Cydia, which during the heyday of jailbreaking collected millions of dollars from users who wanted apps that weren't allowed on the App Store. In the lawsuit, he accused Apple of antitrust violations, called the App Store an illegal monopoly, and claimed the company had "consistently tried to snuff out alternative app stores".

(Apple has repeatedly rejected the characterisation of the App Store as a monopoly. But some analysts take a different view.)

Now the judge in the case, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers (a familiar name to Macworld readers; she also ruled in Apple's battle with Epic Games), has approved a request from Apple to dismiss the lawsuit, MacRumors reports. But all hope is not lost for Freeman - he now has until 19 January to file an amended complaint. If he does, Apple in turn will have until 2 February to respond.

Jailbreaking - removing the controls that prevent unauthorised apps from being installed - was popular during the iPhone's early years, when Apple was particularly strict about controlling every aspect of the user experience. It has since declined somewhat, as Apple, under pressure from users, developers and regulators, has relaxed many of its rules and opened up the system to some features that previously required a jailbreak.

This article originally appeared on Macworld Sweden. Translation (using DeepL) and additional reporting by David Price.