Apple is fighting an antitrust penalty law in India that could require it to pay massive fines in its ongoing antitrust dispute with Tinder owner Match, reports Reuters.


Last year, India passed a law that allows the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to use global turnover when calculating penalties imposed on companies for abusing market dominance. Apple can be fined up to 10 percent, which would result in a penalty of around $38 billion. Apple said that using global turnover would result in a fine that's "manifestly arbitrary, unconstitutional, grossly disproportionate, and unjust."

Apple is asking India's Delhi High Court to declare the law illegal, suggesting that penalties should be based on the Indian revenue of the specific unit that violates antitrust law.

Apple has been fighting an antitrust lawsuit in India since 2022 against dating app Match and several Indian startups. The CCI released a pair of reports last year suggesting that Apple had engaged in "abusive conduct and practices" because it required developers to use its in-app purchase system. The CCI was forced to recall its investigative reports because they contained confidential information about Apple's business practices, resulting in a delay of several months. No final decision has been made, and a penalty has yet to be levied against Apple. Apple maintains that it has not done anything wrong, and argues that it has a very small share of the smartphone market in India because Android devices are much more popular.

Apple said in today's filing that the CCI used the new penalty law on November 10 in an unrelated case, fining a company for a violation that happened 10 years ago. Apple said it had "no choice but to bring this constitutional challenge now" to avoid having retrospective penalties applied against it, too.

Match has argued that a high fine based on global turnover would discourage companies from repeating antitrust violations. Apple's plea will be heard on December 3.
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Apple today challenged the funding behind a $4 billion UK lawsuit during a tribunal hearing, raising new concerns about the iCloud class action as the company battles further antitrust scrutiny.


The case was initiated by consumer group Which on behalf of consumers, alleging that Apple's iCloud storage practices lock users into the service and cause them to pay more for cloud storage than they would have paid under more competitive conditions. Which is seeking compensation and an injunction to prevent Apple from continuing the alleged conduct.

The proposed class period runs from 1 October 2015 to the present, meaning that the claim targets both historic and ongoing conduct by Apple. The application also seeks injunctive relief aimed at preventing Apple from continuing the alleged abusive behavior in the future.

Apple told the Competition Appeal Tribunal that Which had not provided enough clarity about its third-party funder, Litigation Capital Management (LCM), which is paying for the legal action. LCM recently suffered a severe financial decline, losing 99% of its share value from its November 2024 level, leaving it worth about $16 million. Apple argued that this collapse raised questions about whether LCM could still support the lawsuit.

It also said that if it were allowed to pursue an appeal later in the process or if Which's funding is withdrawn, Apple could face a significant risk of not being able to recover its legal costs because LCM might not be able to pay them. The company added that both Apple and the proposed class representative should have been informed sooner and more clearly about LCM's situation.

The funding dispute emerges days after the tribunal refused Apple permission to appeal a separate ruling in a long-running developer class action, which found that Apple had abused its dominant position in iOS app distribution and in-app payment processing. That judgment concluded that Apple's App Store commission structure led to higher prices for consumers and restricted competition, leaving Apple facing potential damages of more than $1 billion.

The tribunal has not yet indicated when it will make a decision and the hearing continues.
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Colombia's competition authority has opened a formal antitrust investigation into Apple, alleging that the company has abused its dominant position in the distribution of apps and purchases on iOS and iPadOS.


The Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (SIC) announced the probe yesterday (via MobileTime), stating that its Delegation for the Protection of Competition had reached a preliminary conclusion that Apple may have engaged in exclusionary practices that restrict free competition in the Colombian market.

The SIC case is focused on two primary concerns. First, the agency alleges that Apple contractually prevents developers from creating or operating alternative app stores on iPhones and iPads, ensuring that all software distribution takes place exclusively through the App Store. This restriction, regulators say, is designed to exclude potential competitors and preserve Apple's market dominance. The SIC noted that such clauses may amount to an abuse of a dominant position under Colombian law.

The second issue involves Apple's handling of in-app purchases. The SIC said developers are compelled to use Apple's proprietary In-App Purchase system, which applies commissions of 15% to 30% on each transaction. Apple also allegedly prohibits developers from informing users of cheaper alternatives outside the app, a practice known as anti-steering. In its announcement, the agency said these restrictions may result in "unjustified excessive costs" for Colombian consumers and create "artificial barriers" that deter new developers from entering the market.

The investigation will now proceed with evidence collection and analysis of Apple's conduct in Colombia. If the SIC determines that Apple has violated antitrust rules, the company could face sanctions of up to 10% of its turnover in the country, in addition to possible orders to amend its practices.

The Colombian probe reflects the growing international scrutiny of Apple's ‌App Store‌. Earlier this year, the European Commission fined Apple €500 million under the Digital Markets Act for preventing developers from directing consumers to alternative payment methods. In the United States, a federal court recently found Apple in contempt of a previous antitrust ruling and prohibited the company from collecting commission on certain web-based purchases. Regulators in Brazil, Japan, and South Korea have also pressed the company on similar issues.
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Elon Musk's xAI startup today filed a Texas lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI, accusing the two companies of conspiring to "ensure their continued dominance" in the AI market.


Earlier this month, Musk threatened to sue Apple and OpenAI because his apps X and Grok have not been featured in the App Store's "Must Have" apps section, and he has now followed through with that threat.

The lawsuit suggests that Apple was "blindsided by major innovations in AI," leading it to team up with OpenAI "in a desperate bid to protect its smartphone monopoly." xAI points to the integrated ChatGPT feature for Siri, because ‌Siri‌'s ability to reference a chatbot is exclusive to OpenAI as of now.

xAI claims that if iPhone users want to access a generative AI chatbot, "they have no choice but to use ChatGPT, even if they would prefer to use more innovative and imaginative products like xAI's Grok." xAI says that while ‌iPhone‌ users can download any chatbot app on their devices, it would not have the same level of "functionality, usability, and integration" as ChatGPT does with ‌Siri‌. There is also clear evidence that Apple is working to integrate other chatbots like Gemini into ‌Siri‌, including a statement from Google CEO Sundar Pichai about talks on that very subject.

The lawsuit states that Apple has been "deprioritizing" the apps of competing generative AI chatbots and apps like X in the ‌App Store‌ and delaying ‌App Store‌ updates, plus it complains that xAI has not been able to get data from billions of ‌iPhone‌ users for training Grok because it is not integrated with ‌Siri‌ like ChatGPT. xAI blames Apple and OpenAI for its failure to "attain more than a few percent of the generative AI chatbot market."

Despite their high rankings in the subject-matter-based "Top Apps" lists, neither the X app nor the Grok app appeared in the "Must-Have Apps" section of the App Store on August 24, 2025. Instead, as reflected in Figure 5 below, the first 11 listed apps in the "Must-Have Apps" section on August 24, 2025 do not include the X app or the Grok app. Neither the X app nor the Grok app appears further down on the list, either. This is also true of other generative AI chatbot and super app competitors.

xAI asks that the court put a stop to Apple and OpenAI's "anticompetitive scheme" and that the two companies be forced to pay damages.
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