Apple escapes email app maker antitrust claims over sign-in feature

(Reuters) – Apple Inc has defeated claims by messaging app maker Blix Inc in Delaware federal court that it is using its “Sign In With Apple” single sign-on (SSO) feature to stifle its and its competition from other application manufacturers.

U.S. District Judge Leonard Stark on Friday dismissed Blix’s third complaint in the case with prejudice for failing to demonstrate an Apple policy requiring developers to offer the feature when they offer SSOs on its system. iOS mobile operation restricted competition, finalizing Apple’s victory after two rulings in its favor.

“This case demonstrates that Apple has always acted legally by introducing its own innovative products and features that promote competition,” an Apple spokesperson said in an email Monday, calling Blix a “frequent complainant to the press and regulators “who had raised” false conspiracy theories “. and anti-competitive claims.

Blix and his attorneys Daniel Melman of Pearl Cohen Zedek Latzer Baratz, Mark Rifkin of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz, and John Day and Andrew Mayo of Ashby & Geddes did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the Apple attorneys Daniel Swanson of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and David Moore of Potter Anderson & Corroon.

Blix first sued Apple in 2019 for alleged violations of patents and antitrust rules. He argued in an amended February complaint that Apple stole the private messaging features of Blix’s BlueMail app for its “Sign In With Apple”, infringed its patent, and used “Sign In With Apple” to help. to maintain monopoly power in the operating systems market.

Stark rejected Blix’s patent application in March after finding the relevant parts of Blix’s patent invalid because they covered abstract ideas. On Friday, Stark dismissed the remainder of Blix’s complaint for failing to make viable antitrust claims.

Blix had accused Apple of using its monopoly power to create a “wedge” around its user base by making it difficult and expensive to exit the iOS ecosystem. Among other things, Blix’s complaint said that Apple is forcing developers to offer “Sign In With Apple” as an alternative to other SSOs, using the technology to “hold developers hostage” by offering them “very unfavorable terms. under penalty of removing access to the critical iOS “. user base. “

“Blix, however, has not alleged (or explained) how Apple

the requirement to offer Sign In With Apple means it eliminates competition in any market, ”Stark said Friday.

Stark said that Apple’s policy does not prohibit the use of other SSOs, that Blix has not explained how the requirement affects the mobile operating system market, and that the requirement to offer “Identifying with Apple” “actually extends consumer choice in the single sign-on market.”

Stark also noted that patent infringement was a “fundamental premise” of Blix’s monopoly claim – which was based in part on claims that Apple had copied the patented technology as part of its efforts to maintain monopoly power. – and that the rejection of the patent claim eliminates “at least a substantial part” of Blix’s antitrust claim.

The case is Blix Inc v. Apple Inc. US District Court for the District of Delaware, No. 1: 19-cv-01869.

For Blix: Daniel Melman of Pearl Cohen Zedek Latzer Baratz; Mark Rifkin of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz; and John Day and Andrew Mayo of Ashby & Geddes

For Apple: Daniel Swanson of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; and David Moore of Potter Anderson & Corroon

(This story has been updated to attribute Apple’s statement to a company spokesperson.)