The developer of a digital actuality yoga app has filed a lawsuit in opposition to Meta, accusing the corporate of retaliating after it realized he was additionally in talks with Apple about bringing the app to Imaginative and prescient Professional.
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As reported by Bloomberg, developer Andre Elijah had labored intently with Meta on a partnership to launch his AEI Health app on Meta’s Quest digital actuality platforms. In keeping with Elijah, the app was set to be unveiled at Meta Join, the corporate’s two-day VR occasion that was held final month.
However whereas getting ready for the keynote, which would come with a “attractive trailer” for the AEI Health app, Elijah says he was informed the deal was off. Meta allegedly banned Elijah from Meta Join and put his title on “a blacklist of builders it refuses to do enterprise with.”
“It was hell engaged on it, and we bought there,” Elijah mentioned in an interview, including that the corporate made a “attractive” trailer for its presentation on the convention. However whereas getting ready to be a part of Chief Government Officer Mark Zuckerberg’s keynote, he says, he was informed, “‘No, the venture’s killed, we’re not providing you with your cash.’”
Elijah’s lawsuit accuses Meta of scrapping the deal after it realized that he had additionally talked with Apple about bringing AEI Health to Imaginative and prescient Professional, in addition to talks with ByteDance for the corporate’s Pico platform.
Apple and Pico, the lawsuit says, agreed to launch the AEI Health app “on their platforms inside the subsequent 1-2 years.”
Inside simply days of the scheduled launch of the AEI Health App, Meta realized that the AEI Health App was going to launch on Apple and Pico additionally.
And so, with this new info in hand, Meta, and every of the opposite Defendants, conspired, colluded, aided-and abetted each other, and acted in live performance, to place an finish to the AEI Health App, and to proverbially nail its coffin shut in order that it might by no means see the sunshine of day.
Within the lawsuit, Elijah argues that Meta’s retaliation will “end in decreased innovation, high quality and selection, much less strain to compete for probably the most gifted app builders, and probably increased costs for VR health apps.”
In keeping with Bloomberg, Meta had already paid Elijah round $1.5 million. Via the lawsuit, the developer is searching for “$3.2 million extra within the close to time period, and lots of of thousands and thousands in misplaced income and damages.” In whole, that equates to over $353 million in damages, the lawsuit says.
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