On Thursday, Rave, a software developer, filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple, alleging that the iPhone manufacturer removed Rave’s app for shared viewing of video content off the Apple App Store after introducing a competing product named SharePlay.
Rave, based in Ontario, Canada, is requesting reinstallation into the App Store, as well as, “hundreds of millions of dollars” in damages, as made known through the complaint filed in U.S. federal court in New Jersey.
Via a statement, Apple, a top American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, responded: “We reject these baseless allegations.
“The Rave app was removed following repeated guideline violations, which we communicated to the developer on multiple occasions. These violations included hosting and sharing pornographic and pirated content, and user complaints regarding CSAM.”
In its reaction to Apple, a Rave Spox described in a statement, the CSAM allegations as “baseless”.
Rave, an online entertainment platform, said it “has zero tolerance for unlawful or exploitative content”, it added, Apple “removed a cross-platform competitor from its App Store to increase its monopoly profits without a fair or transparent process.”
Rave, founded in 2013, makes an app that allow users watch and converse about video content together across Apple’s iOS operating system, Android, Windows and Apple’s Mac computers. It remains available on Windows and Android.
Via the legal complaint, Rave alleges that Apple deleted its app from the App Store in 2025 for what Apple called “dishonest or fraudulent activity.”
Also, Rave alleges that the Smartphone maker’s true reason for the deletion was that Rave, which relied hugely on revenue from advertisement and therefore failed to generate commission revenue for the laptop and tablet manufacturer from in-app purchases.
CEO of Rave, Michael Pazaratz, said in a press release, “Apple’s pretextual removal of Rave from the App Store has harmed consumers significantly by limiting choice and effectively preventing Apple customers from co-viewing and connecting with non-Apple customers”.
Photo: Apple Logo
