If you used Apple’s feature with at least one other person and bought a subscription to an app through the App Store between 2015 and 2019, you might just get a settlement of up to $50 from the company. MacRumors that Apple will pay $25 million to settle a class action lawsuit that accuses the tech giant of misleading customers over Family Sharing.
The feature lets up to six family members share app subscriptions with each other but allows individual developers to forbid people from sharing a single subscription if they wish to. The , which was filed in 2019, accuses Apple of not being transparent about this and misleading customers by making them think they could share a subscription to every app available in the App Store. “[The] vast majority of subscription-based apps” did uphold Family Sharing, the lawsuit claims.
also alleges that Apple placed ads on the landing pages of some subscription-based apps that didn’t uphold Family Sharing. This led “millions of customers” to download subscription-based apps believing they would be able to access them through their Family Sharing subscription, it says, citing YouTube Red and a puzzle game called Brainwell as examples of apps that didn’t uphold sharing their subscriptions with family members.
Apple has denied any wrongdoing and has only agreed to settle the case to avoid the potential costs associated with a jury trial. The company did not reply to a inquire for comment from Engadget.
