US technology companies Apple and Google were the subject of two new trials at the Santarém Competition, Regulation and Supervision Court, according to Expresso. According to the newspaper, they want companies to return more than €200 million to Portuguese customers using the app stores: Apple’s App Store and Google’s Google Play.
They are popular actions, that is, situations in which the actor wants to force a certain company to compensate multiple consumers, who will then have to prove that they were harmed. There are several popular actions against multinational companies, in several cases initiated by consumer protection associations.
These lawsuits were brought before the Competition Court on July 15, filed by Fabrizio Esposito, a law professor at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa. “The complaints allege that Apple and Google systematically acted in violation of competition law by charging excessive commissions to millions of Portuguese buyers of applications (Apps)”, explained the lawyer to the weekly.
The complaints argue that both Apple and Google “could not charge customers such an excessive margin if they did not impose technical and contractual restrictions on their devices that make competition from other application stores and payment service providers practically impossible,” according to the complaint. clarification. of the communication consultant who advises the teacher, quoted by Expresso.
The total “cake” of more than 200 million euros refers to the approximately 100 million euros that are demanded from each of the multinationals.
Among the lawsuits filed by the law professor are also two Portuguese law firms, J+Legal and Cardigos, as well as the Hausfeld law firm and the Spanish firm Eskariam, a company specializing in class action lawsuits.
This not the first class action lawsuit filed against the two multinationals in Portugal. In March of this year, the Ius Omnibus association advanced against these companies for alleged anti-competitive practices linked to operating systems, Android and iOS.
Last year, the same association filed a lawsuit against Apple, but this time demanding compensation for €137 million for Portuguese consumers of iPhones damaged by Apple. At the time, the association said that Portuguese consumers would have been “harmed by Apple’s illicit practices regarding the transmission of information and misleading advertising about the liquid resistance of iPhones.”
Ius Omnibus Association files class action lawsuit against Apple to compensate 137 million iPhone owners
In the United States, the agreement accepted by Apple to compensate the company’s clients for failures in the keyboard of the Macbook that used the “butterfly” system made headlines. More prone to failure, customers have moved to this action in the North American market. On July 19, the owner of the iPhone agreed to pay $50 million to end this class action.
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Source: Observadora
