“Not just cosmetic changes” – Proton sues Apple over “anti-competitive and illegal” policies

• Proton has joined a US lawsuit against Apple over anti-competitive practices
• The suit seeks both changes in the App Store ecosystem and monetary damages
• On April 30, 2025, a US judge found Apple guilty of violating the 2021 Epic Games case federal injunction over illegal monopoly

Swiss privacy firm Proton has sued Apple over anti-competitive practices that, the company warns, undermine freedom and democracy, hurt privacy-first companies, and lead to a worse user experience.

The provider behind one of the best VPN, secure email, encrypted calendar, and password manager services, Proton, has joined an existing class-action lawsuit in the US against Apple on Monday, June 30, 2025.

The suit, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, seeks changes in the App Store ecosystem as well as monetary damages. The latter, Proton said, will be donated to organizations fighting for democracy and human rights via the nonprofit behind the company, Proton Foundation.

Why Proton is suing Apple

“Apple’s monopoly control of software distribution on iOS devices presents a myriad of problems for consumers, businesses, and society as a whole,” wrote Proton in a blog post.

“Anti-monopoly laws exist because the power gifted by monopoly status inevitably leads to abuse. In the case of oligarchic tech giants, these abuses have wide implications for society, and it’s vital to the future of the internet that they be addressed now.”

Specifically, Proton claims that Apple’s policies favor a surveillance capitalism model that hurts privacy and privacy-first companies.

Apple not only requires all developers to pay an annual fee to be in the App Store, but it also takes a 30% cut from all subscription payments made through iOS apps.

On April 30, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers found this behavior to violate her federal injunction over illegal monopoly issued in 2021 in the Epic Games case.

The Big Tech giant was indeed supposed to halt anti-competitive practices by giving third-party developers more power to redirect users to cheaper non-Apple payment options.

On that occasion, Proton’s Founder and CEO, Andy Yen, said that the company could lower its pricing by up to 30% if Apple were finally forced to remove its tax on the App Store.

Proton also warns that Apple’s total control of the App Store endangers app distribution across different markets.

“Apple argues this control is necessary for security reasons. But the reality is that this has made Apple the single point of failure for free speech and a tool of dictatorships,” said the provider.

In 2024 alone, for example, Apple has removed at least 60 VPN apps from Russia‘s App Store at the request of authorities, for a total of nearly 100 applications unavailable in Apple’s market in Russia.

Researchers at AppleCensorship also found a staggering 11,026 unavailable apps in China’s App Store, which affect sensitive categories like virtual private network (VPN) – ProtonVPN included – other privacy software (like ProtonMail, Signal, and DuckDuckGo), news apps, social media, and even dating applications.

Proton also accuses Apple of “intentionally crippling third-party apps that compete with Apple services,” ultimately delivering Apple users a worse internet experience.

For example, Apple allegedly prevents users from using the Proton Calendar app as a default option, Proton said, despite this interoperability being available for email services.

What’s next?

As mentioned earlier, Proton has joined an existing lawsuit that was filed on May 23 against Apple by a group representing Korean app developers.

Yet, the lawsuit isn’t just about money. The decision to join this legal action against such a tech behemoth, Proton said, stems from the commitment to improve the state of the internet by changing Apple App Store policies once and for all.

“We are seeking to permanently end anti-competitive behavior on the App Store, and we are joining this lawsuit to ensure that any future settlement enforces real changes to Apple’s practices and policies to benefit all consumers, developers, and competition, and not just cosmetic changes,” said Proton.

We approached Apple for comments, but we’re still waiting for a response at the time of publication.

You might also like