Apple agreed to pay $25 million to settle class action related to "family sharing"

CTOnews.com, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) Apple recently agreed to pay $25 million (currently about 178 million yuan) to settle a class action lawsuit over the "family sharing" feature.

The class action lawsuit dates back to 2019, when plaintiffs claimed that Apple misrepresented its ability to share subscription apps in Family sharing.

Apple's official description of the "family sharing" feature is attached to CTOnews.com as follows:

With Family sharing, you can share access to exciting Apple services such as iCloud+, Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Fitness+, Apple News+ and Apple Arcade with up to five other family members.

Your group can also share iTunes, Apple Books and App Store purchases. You can even help locate each other's lost equipment.

The focus of the lawsuit is that, under Apple's official policy, app developers can choose not to participate in "family sharing", which was not explicitly mentioned in previous promotional statements.

Class action plaintiffs believe that Apple has placed ads on all App login pages and so on since Apple launched its "family sharing" service on January 30, 2019.

However, Apple did not declare that not all apps support "family sharing". In fact, most subscription-based apps do not participate in "family sharing" and believe that Apple has a "induced purchase" situation.