Last Friday, app developers engaged in a class action with Apple Inc. concerning allegations that the company maintains unfair leverage as the sole iOS app intermediary, standing between developers and customers, pushed for final approval of their $100 million settlement. The motion said that so far, the administrator has received about 8,200 claims of the 67,440 application developer accounts identified, only one class member has objected, and Apple’s concerns about counsel’s fee request are “misguided.”
Last November, the court granted preliminary approval to the settlement, which the parties agreed to while class certification briefing was underway.
The plaintiffs’ filing now urges Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to greenlight the settlement, which boasts injunctive relief in the way of relaxed anti-steering rules, allowing greater communication between app developers and customers, and a lower commission for developers enrolled in the “Small Business Program” for at least three more years. The filing describes the settlement as an “excellent result,” while noting that the sole objector did not take issue with it, but merely suggested additional ways Apple could reform its policies.
The motion also tackles Apple’s “critique” of counsel’s request for attorneys’ fees of $27 million. It argues that Apple mischaracterizes the percentage the lawyers seek because its calculation did not include the value of the non-monetary relief, which they posit is $35.44 million. The filing says it should be included as part of that pool because the Ninth Circuit has said that it should be, where the monetary value of structural relief is readily ascertainable.
The motion further argues that even without counting the injunctive relief’s value, the request for $27 million is reasonable. The plaintiffs press that given the circumstances of the case, and highlighting their negotiation of the non-monetary portion of the settlement, they deserve the requested amount.
The final approval hearing is scheduled for June 7. Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP is interim lead class counsel and Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP represents Apple.
