A 12-person Canadian startup is taking on US tech giant Apple in legal fights across the globe for alleged antitrust violations after Apple removed its video-sharing app from the App Store.
Hamilton, Ont.-based Rave, the maker of a social streaming app that allows users to sync video streaming to remotely watch movies or TV shows together, says its app was removed from the App Store in 2025 and blocked on Apple operating systems. In a legal filing, Rave claimed that Apple’s actions have “devastated” its business, and it does not expect to survive without access to Apple users.
“They’re one of the largest companies in the world, and we’re a family-owned, 12 person company from Canada.”
To try to reinstate its app, Rave filed a leave application with Canada’s Competition Tribunal on May 7. If it’s approved, the application would allow Rave to bring a legal case against Apple in Canada. Rave is also pursuing an antitrust suit in the US and legal proceedings in the Netherlands, Brazil, and Russia.
The company says Apple’s removal of its video-sharing app from the App Store, as well as its decision to tag Rave as malware on iOS operating systems, constitutes anticompetitive behaviour.
Rave is seeking an interim and permanent order restoring its app to Apple’s operating systems, plus monetary damages of $25 million, in addition to triple the value of how much Apple made from this “anticompetitive practice.” Rave claims that Apple has breached sections 75 and 79 of Canada’s Competition Act. These sections govern abuse and market dominance provisions, as well as refusals to sell to other businesses. Its claims have not yet been proven in court.
Rave CEO Michael Pazaratz said in a statement that the removal of Rave from the App Store “has harmed consumers significantly by limiting choice and effectively preventing Apple customers from co-viewing and connecting with non-Apple customers.”
In a statement to Reuters, Apple rejected what it called Rave’s “baseless allegations,” and explained that it removed the Rave app after “repeated guideline violations.” According to Apple, this included violations such as hosting and sharing pornographic and pirated content, and user complaints regarding child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Apple says it communicated these complaints to Rave developers multiple times. Posts on Reddit indicate some Rave users have publicly complained about what they describe as inappropriate material within the app and lax moderation. BetaKit has reached out to Apple but did not hear back by press time.
In response, a Rave spokesperson called Apple’s allegations “baseless and extraordinary,” adding that Rave has “zero tolerance for unlawful or exploitative content and has developed industry-leading content moderation and age verification technologies that are far superior to comparable apps that remain on the App Store.”
Rave pointed to its online safety page, which notes that it uses machine learning to flag CSAM and violent imagery, as well as manual review. Rave’s US antitrust complaint states that other apps still available on Apple’s App Store include Roblox. Roblox has been sued nearly 150 times over claims that it has served as a pathway for child exploitation. Some of those claims have been settled, while others are winding their way through the courts. Roblox has said that it rejects the allegations, and that it takes swift action against those who violate the platform’s rules.
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Founded in 2015, Rave’s social streaming app allows users to sync up and watch movies, TV shows, and other media together across devices while chatting in real time. The company claims its app has been downloaded more than 225 million times.
In its US legal complaint, Rave said that activity on its virtual “watch room” app shot up by 800 percent during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. In 2021, Apple released SharePlay, a FaceTime app feature that allows users to watch videos and listen to music together. SharePlay is exclusive to Apple devices, while Rave’s app can be used on Android, Windows, and other operating systems.
Rave said that in 2025, Apple “moved to kill the Rave app” by removing it from the App Store, eliminating a product that competed with SharePlay.
Rave also started a petition on change.org called “Bring Rave back to the App Store,” which has amassed more than 4,000 signatures. “They’re one of the largest companies in the world, and we’re a family-owned, 12 person company from Canada,” the company claimed in the text of its petition.
This is not the first lawsuit of its kind Apple has faced. Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, sued the big tech company in 2020 over its restrictions on apps from having other in-app purchasing methods besides the one offered by Apple. In 2021, a US federal court came to a split decision: the in-app purchasing restriction was ruled illegal but the company was allowed to maintain the structure of the App Store.
Feature image courtesy Mika Baumeister via Unsplash.