Apple slapped with $5m civil suit over free-to-play Zynga games
Global tech giant hit with legal action over social casino games which allegedly violate laws in 25 US states
Apple has been hit with a $5m (£3.6m) class action lawsuit for allegedly profiting from casino-style games advertised on its App Store.
The lawsuit alleges the games are illegal in 25 US states and was filed with the US District Court for the Northern District of Columbia.
It centres around free-to-play games that offer micro-transactions or in-app purchases for digital currency or other forms of digital goods.
More than 100 members are present in the class action lawsuit, with a woman from Mississippi listed as the primary plaintiff.
Casino game developer Zynga is listed in the lawsuit as violating state laws in 25 states, including New York, New Jersey, Illinois and Oregon. Games highlighted in the suit include Zynga poker and the publisher’s Game of Thrones slot casino game.
However, due to the class action nature, all individuals who have paid money to Apple for coins to wager on the Zynga Casino site and who reside in the 25 states could potentially claim this money back as well as damages from Apple, opening the global giant up to a multitude of claims.
“The apps referenced herein could not be downloaded by Apple consumers, and Apple consumers would not be able to make in-app purchases, without Apple’s offering and distributing of the apps (and selling of coins through in-app purchases) through the App Store,” the suit explains.
It alleges that Apple is liable because of its provision of iOS development tools, as well as hosting the games on the App Store and profiting from the sale, effectively operating as an unlicensed casino.
“Developers and Apple have several options for monetizing an app, including the “Freemium Model,” which is utilized by Apple and apps developed by Zynga that are the subject of this lawsuit.
“Under the Freemium Model, consumers can download the app for free, but consumers are then offered optional additional in-app features that require payments,” it adds.
The games highlighted in the suit provide players with a limited number of tokens when downloaded and users who exhaust these tokens are prompted to purchase additional tokens with real money.
Plaintiffs allege users are unable to collect actual cash prizes in the casino games but do have the ability to win, and thereby increase their playing time, something which violates anti-gambling laws in the 25 states named.
In addition, the plaintiffs cite the risk of gambling-related harm from continuing to play these sorts of ‘free-to-play’ games.
The lawsuit echoes a similar case involving fellow social casino operator Big Fish Games, which was found to be offering illegal gambling by a Washington court in 2018.
In that decision, handed down by the Ninth Circuit of US Court of Appeals, the operator’s virtual coins were deemed as “something of value” under Washington State law and therefore conceptually equivalent to money.