Rave sues Apple in U.S. antitrust case over App Store removal of its co-viewing app

Thursday, May 7, 2026Business & MarketsWell-covered4 frames

Rave filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple in U.S. federal court in New Jersey on Thursday.
Rave alleges Apple removed its co-viewing app from the App Store after Apple introduced SharePlay, a competing watch-together feature.
Rave is seeking reinstatement to the App Store and hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
Rave is based in Ontario, Canada, and its app lets users watch and discuss video content together across multiple platforms including iOS, Android, Windows and macOS.
The app remains available on Android and Windows, even though it was removed from Apple's App Store.
Rave says Apple's actions also included revoking its developer credentials and labeling its Mac app as malware.
Rave has also announced or filed related antitrust cases against Apple in four other countries: Canada, Brazil, the Netherlands and Russia.
A central unresolved issue is Apple's justification for removing the app: Rave says Apple cited fraud or content-moderation concerns without clearly explaining the violations, while Apple had not publicly responded in the Reuters report.

How left and right are reading this

Both agree: A platform owner’s unexplained removal of a competing app, especially after launching a similar feature, can reduce user choice and raise serious questions about how that power is exercised.
They split on: Less a disagreement than a question of emphasis: the concrete loss of access and cross-platform choice for users and a smaller rival, versus the unresolved basis Apple gave for sidelining a competing app.

Rave filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple in U.S. federal court in New Jersey on Thursday.
Rave alleges Apple removed its co-viewing app from the App Store after Apple introduced SharePlay, a competing watch-together feature.
Rave is seeking reinstatement to the App Store and hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
Rave is based in Ontario, Canada, and its app lets users watch and discuss video content together across multiple platforms including iOS, Android, Windows and macOS.
The app remains available on Android and Windows, even though it was removed from Apple's App Store.
Rave says Apple's actions also included revoking its developer credentials and labeling its Mac app as malware.
Rave has also announced or filed related antitrust cases against Apple in four other countries: Canada, Brazil, the Netherlands and Russia.
A central unresolved issue is Apple's justification for removing the app: Rave says Apple cited fraud or content-moderation concerns without clearly explaining the violations, while Apple had not publicly responded in the Reuters report.