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Apple has finally started to pay App Store developers from the Small Developer Assistance Fund, a $100 million cash pool set up as part of a class-action settlement.
In August 2021, Apple agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by U.S. developers concerned about App Store practices. As part of the settlement, Apple agreed to set up the Apple Smart Developer Assistance Fund, which would provide affected developers with a cash payment.
According to a number of developers on Twitter on Friday and Saturday, Apple has started to send out the payments from the fund.
In April, I received a sketchy voicemail from a random number about a class action lawsuit settlement for iOS Developers (Cameron et al v. #Apple Inc.). I thought it was a scam and almost ignored it.
My jaw literally just dropped at this notification. pic.twitter.com/MHlq4P12rs
— Dan Leveille (@danlev) October 21, 2022
Developers had until May 20 to submit a request to an independent administrator to become a "Settlement Class Member." If they met the criteria, the developers stood to receive a payment from $250 to $30,000 in value.
The fund was available to all developers based in the U.S. who sold paid apps or in-app purchases and subscriptions through the App Store between June 4, 2015 and April 26, 2021. They also had to earn proceeds equal to or less than $1 million through the U.S. storefront in each calendar year that they had a development account for between 2015 and 2021.
The lawsuit that the fund settles stems back to 2019, after a group of developers accused Apple of holding monopoly power enough to exert "profit-killing" App Store commissions and fees on app makers.
Along with the fund, the settlement also introduced a number of changes to App Store policies, including modifications relating to customer and developer communication, new pricing tiers, and a promise by Apple to continue offering its 15% reduced App Store commission for at least three years.
