Apple freezes the developer account of the virtual currency wallet Zeus, is it because it was cited in a complaint by another wallet user?



Evan Kaldis, the founder of the virtual currency wallet Zeus, has reported that his developer account was frozen by Apple without prior notice. Mr. Caldis suspects that the reason for the freeze was that his post on X (Twitter) was cited in a complaint filed by a user of another wallet ``Venmo'' against Apple.



In his post, Kaldis showed his posts cited in the complaint, as well as a login screen that displayed the error message 'This Apple ID is not active.'



The lawsuit in question was brought against Apple by four users of the wallet 'Venmo.' The plaintiffs allege that Apple's abuse of market power to suppress competition in person-to-person transactions (P2P payments) in the mobile field violates antitrust laws, and that Apple is violating antitrust laws by abusing its market power to suppress competition in person-to-person transactions (P2P payments) in the mobile field. It seeks an injunction to force separation.

Venmo, Cash App users sue Apple over peer-to-peer payment fees | Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/venmo-cash-app-users-sue-apple-over-peer-to-peer-payment-fees-2023-11-20/

LAMARTINE PIERRE, MARK WHITLOCK, LYNN-MARIE RODRIGUES, and MARISSA WILLIAMS, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. APPLE INC., Defendant
(PDF file) https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/legaldocs/zdpxrbjyrpx/Apple Cash 20231117.pdf

The post by Kaldis cited in the complaint is below, and was made when Zeus v0.7.6 did not pass the review. Apple pointed to `` 3.1.5 Cryptocurrency '' in the guidelines, stating that ``the virtual currency was not sent from a supported exchange or accredited financial institution,'' and told Mr. Kaldis that ``everywhere the app is available, , please provide documentation that you have the necessary licenses and permissions to distribute apps with virtual currency exchange functionality.'' Plaintiffs used this as evidence of Apple's efforts to remove wallet apps that could rival Apple Cash from the App Store.



It is unclear whether Apple took issue with Caldis' tweets, but Caldis said, ``Apparently, if your social media posts are cited in an antitrust lawsuit, Apple will suspend your developer account without prior notice.'' 'It seems that this account suspension is related to the court case.'

Mr. Caldis commented, ``I expected that the application review would be strict, but I did not expect it to turn out like this.''



It has been reported that although the app cannot be updated, it remains in the App Store and TestFlight.



Mr. Caldis said, ``Maybe, if we're lucky, this series of posts may also be cited in another lawsuit. That's exciting.''



Mr. Caldis contacted Apple about the frozen developer account, but there was no response even after three days, and the app remains as it is.



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