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LONDON (Reuters) -Apple on Thursday lost a London lawsuit accusing the U.S. tech company of abusing its dominant position by charging app developers an unfair 30% commission through its app store. The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) ruled against Apple after a trial of the lawsuit, brought on behalf of around 20 million iPhone and iPad users in the United Kingdom and valued at up to 1.5 billion pounds ($2.01 billion), earlier this year. Rachael Kent, the British academic who brought the case, argued Apple had made "exorbitant profits" by excluding all competition for the distribution of apps and in-app purchases. The CAT ruled that Apple had abused its dominant position by shutting out competition in the app distribution market and by "charging excessive and unfair prices in the form of the commission which it charges developers". The tribunal said members of the claimant class were entitled to damages, with how damages are to be calculated to be argued at a hearing next month. Apple – which has faced mounting pressure from regulators in the U.S. and Europe over the fees it charges developers – said it would appeal against the ruling, which it said "takes a flawed view of the thriving and competitive app economy". "This ruling overlooks how the App Store helps developers succeed and gives consumers a safe, trusted place to discover apps and securely make payments," an Apple spokesperson said. The case was the first mass lawsuit against a tech giant to come to trial under Britain's fledgling class action-style regime, with many other cases waiting in the wings. ($1 = 0.7451 pounds) (Reporting by Sam Tobin; editing by William James)

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LONDON (Reuters) -Apple on Thursday lost a London lawsuit accusing the U.S. tech company of abusing its dominant position by charging app developers an unfair 30% commission through its App Store. The Competition Appeal Tribunal ruled against Apple after a trial of the lawsuit, brought on behalf of around 20 million iPhone and iPad users in the United Kingdom and valued at up to 1.5 billion pounds ($2.01 billion), earlier this year. The case was the first mass lawsuit against a tech giant to come to trial under Britain's fledgling class action-style regime, with many other cases waiting in the wings. ($1 = 0.7451 pounds) (Reporting by Sam Tobin; editing by William James)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

(Reuters) -Mobileye Global beat Wall Street expectations for third-quarter revenue on Thursday, as automakers ramped up orders of the company's driver-assisted chips in a rush to adopt autonomous software. The company is seeing a surge in demand for its self-driving systems after a prolonged slump as its customers clear inventory. Mobileye's customers had stocked up to avoid a shortage during the pandemic. "Continued auto production stability gives us confidence to again raise our full-year outlook, removing conservatism we had embedded earlier due to macro uncertainty," said Mobileye CEO Amnon Shashua. The company also added Volvo as a new customer, executives said on a post-earnings conference call. Still, even as demand grows, economic uncertainty lingers as the imposition of tariffs on imports of automobiles and parts has pressured many of Mobileye's customers, forcing them to readjust supply chains. Mobileye previously said it would not be directly impacted by the duties. Company executives cautioned about margin pressure next year as Mobileye ramps up volume shipments of lower-margin products, but said they would improve in 2027 as product mix shifts to higher margin chips. The chipmaker, of which Intel is the largest shareholder, has previously flagged revenue potential from the robotaxi industry as several firms eye a larger portion of the fledgling market. Mobileye has been collaborating with firms such as Lyft to roll out autonomous taxis – which analysts say will be increasingly competitive in a few years with a large market. The company reported third-quarter revenue of $504 million, beating estimates of $480.9 million, according to data compiled by LSEG. The company raised the lower end of its annual revenue forecast. It now expects annual revenue of between $1.85 billion and $1.89 billion, compared with its prior projection of between $1.77 billion and $1.89 billion. (Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Leroy Leo)

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By Paul Sandle LONDON (Reuters) -British ad group WPP said on Thursday it was letting brands access its AI-powered marketing platform to plan, create and publish their own campaigns. WPP Open Pro, a new edition of its AI platform WPP Open, has been designed for smaller brands that do not use full-service agencies, it said, as well as to provide new capabilities to existing clients. Advertising groups are facing the challenge of brands starting to use AI to do more of their own creative and planning work, reducing the fees they pay to agencies. WPP has appointed Cindy Rose to turn it around after it lost its crown as the world's biggest ad group to French rival Publicis last year and its shares more than halved this year. The company, which owns Ogilvy, AKQA and WPP Media, said it was the first of its peers to provide a range of integrated, AI-powered delivery models, including directly to clients. Rose, who took over from Mark Read last month, said WPP's creative and strategic talent would always be at the heart of what it did for the world's biggest brands, such as Coca-Cola. But technology was fundamentally reshaping the industry, she said, and the new platform would put its AI capabilities into the hands of a much wider array of brands and businesses. "This is about transforming how marketing is delivered, expanding our total addressable market, and giving more brands the tools they need to lead in the AI era," she said. The platform will enable brands to create channel-specific ads in seconds, it said. For example, a coffee shop chain could combine brand-approved imagery with content generated by AI to create a campaign for a new store opening. The ad could then be dropped into WPP's Open Media Studio to be published or it could be published directly to major platforms, WPP said. (Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by William James)

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(Reuters) -Roper Technologies cut its annual profit forecast on Thursday, as it expects higher costs related to acquisitions in the third quarter, sending the software company's shares down 7%. The company has grown largely through acquisitions, establishing itself as a provider of software and automated solutions to a variety of sectors, including healthcare, transportation and education. Roper has more than $5 billion in capital available for merger and acquisitions over the next 12 months, it said. It now expects adjusted earnings per share between $19.90 and $19.95 for the year, compared with its earlier expectation of $19.90 to $20.05. The forecast assumed about 10 cents of adjusted EPS dilution from quarterly acquisitions. The company said it deployed $1.3 billion for acquisitions in the third quarter. "Our underlying earnings are trending toward the higher end of our previous guidance range despite the government shutdown and some timing delays at Neptune," CEO Neil Hunn said in a statement. Roper's water-metering unit, Neptune, is facing delays in some water utility deployments. The new copper tariff that took effect on August 1 also caused some short-term disruption at Neptune. The company's Deltek government contracting business saw a slowdown in September as agencies halted activity before the shutdown. It forecast fourth-quarter adjusted profit to be between $5.11 and $5.16 per share, below analysts' average estimate of $5.25, according to data compiled by LSEG. This forecast assumes a 5-cent impact from small acquisitions. Revenue for the third quarter ended September 30 rose 14% to $2.02 billion, which was in-line with analysts estimates. It reported adjusted EPS of $5.14, beating estimates of $5.11. Roper also unveiled a new $3 billion share repurchase program on Thursday. (Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Leroy Leo)

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