Rave filed antitrust lawsuits against Apple on Thursday, May 7, 2026, after the company removed the video-sharing app from the App Store [1].

This legal action highlights the ongoing tension between platform owners and third-party developers. If the courts find that Apple used its control over the App Store to stifle competition from a successful app, it could lead to further regulatory scrutiny of Apple's ecosystem practices globally.

The software developer and operator of the Rave app announced the legal actions from San Francisco [2]. The company filed lawsuits in five countries: the U.S., Canada, Brazil, the Netherlands, and Russia [3, 4].

According to the filings, Apple removed the Rave app in August 2025 [5]. Rave alleges that the removal occurred after Apple introduced its own competing co-watch feature, known as SharePlay [2, 4]. The developer said the move was anti-competitive and a violation of antitrust law [2, 4].

The impact of the removal is significant given the app's reach. The Rave app had more than 225 million downloads [6]. By removing the app, Rave said Apple effectively eliminated a competitor to favor its own integrated services.

Apple has not yet issued a formal response to the specific allegations in these filings. The cases will examine whether the App Store's guidelines were applied fairly or if they were used as a tool to prioritize Apple's own product development, a central theme in multiple recent tech antitrust battles worldwide.

“Rave filed antitrust lawsuits against Apple in five countries.”

This lawsuit represents a broader challenge to 'sherlocking' — a term used when a platform owner integrates a third-party app's core functionality into the operating system and then restricts the original developer. By filing in five different jurisdictions, Rave is attempting to leverage varying international antitrust laws to force Apple to reinstate the app or pay damages, potentially creating a precedent for how platform owners manage competing internal features.