When Apple removed the free music streaming app Musi from the App Store in 2024, its developers filed a lawsuit. This week, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, in a case that could be a landmark decision on app removals from the App Store.
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Judge Eumi Lee of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed with prejudice the lawsuit filed by Musi Inc. against Apple in 2024.
Musi was a free music streaming application that pulled songs from YouTube and was removed from the App Store after claims by Google that it violated the platform's video usage terms. Musi disputed this claim, arguing that what it did was no different from users accessing YouTube directly via a browser.
After the app was removed, Musi Inc. filed a lawsuit, claiming that Apple acted in bad faith, admitting “that it knowingly relied on false information” to remove Musi from the App Store.
Judge Lee ruled that Apple is allowed to remove apps from the App Store “with or without cause,” as set forth in Developer Program License Agreement . The DPLA is clear and explicit: Apple may “stop promoting, offering, and permitting end users to download [the Musi app] at any time, with or without cause, upon providing notice of termination.” Under this language, Apple had the right to stop offering the Musi app without cause, as long as it provided notice to Musi.
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The complaint states, and Musi does not dispute, that Apple gave Musi the required notice. Therefore, Apple’s decision to remove the Musi app from the App Store did not violate the DPLA.
Aside from dismissing the lawsuit, Judge Lee also partially granted Apple’s request for sanctions against Musi Inc.’s law firm under Rule 11, accusing its lawyers of “bad faith” without real support. After two months of discovery, including witness testimonies from Apple and a review of Apple’s documents, Winston & Strawn was not free to fabricate events to cover the gaps in Musi’s case.
In the “bad faith” filing, the company's legal team argued that Apple and “anonymous ‘players of the music industry'” had developed a “backstage plan” to remove Musi from the App Store and that Apple had “‘admitted’ that it relied knowingly on false information” to do so.
In his ruling, Judge Lee stated that “this is one of the rare instances where Rule 11 sanctions are necessary and appropriate,” and as a result, Musi Inc.’s law firm was ordered to pay Apple’s legal fees and expenses related to the sanctions motion.
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Given that the lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice, this means that Musi Inc. cannot file the same claim again in court.
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