Fakespot, software that analyzes the integrity of reviews from Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and others, has had its app removed from the iOS App Store just a month and a half after a new updated version was released.

While there is some debate as to the exact reason and order, all parties involved agree that Amazon is involved. This has not been denied by Amazon itself; Amazon told The Verge that the Fakespot app acts as a wrapper to the main website, thus opening an attack vector that puts customers at risk.

"The app in question provides customers with misleading information about our sellers and their products, harming our sellers' business and creating potential security risks," the statement said.

The in-app shopping experience, which presents an alleged attack vector, is new for the app. Previously, the iPhone experience required users to share products via Amazon's site or mobile app, which was hardly a smooth experience.

Apple, for its part, has stated that it has attempted to mediate between Amazon and Fakespot." This was a dispute over intellectual property rights initiated by Amazon on June 8, and within hours we confirmed that both parties had contacted each other, explained the issue and the steps developers should take to keep their apps in the store, and gave them ample time to resolve the issue," the company said in a statement.

"On June 29, we contacted Fakespot again a few weeks before we removed their app from the App Store.

Saoud Khalifah, founder of Fakespot, said that the circumstances sounded a lot more like Apple was involved than they really were, although Khalifah did mention that Apple "may be forced to remove" the app on June 29, noted that it did not provide any guidance as to what could be done to stop this from happening.

"I am shocked that Apple decided to take Amazon's side without any proof," Khalifah told The Verge. 'We just spent months of resources, time, and money on this app. Apple won't even give us the ability to fix this."

This is because Apple's own App Store rules are quite strict when it comes to third-party services. 5.2.2 states: "If your app uses, accesses, monetizes, or displays content from a third-party service, you must clearly permit it under the service 5.2.2 states: "If your app uses, accesses, monetizes, or displays content from a third party service, please ensure that this is explicitly permitted under the terms of use of the service. Authorization must be provided upon request.

While there seem to be plenty of apps that circumvent this rule without penalty (e.g., coupon search apps), it is clear that Amazon is not giving authorization to apps that question the integrity of their reviews (wrong, Amazon claims). The real question would not be why Apple agreed to pull the app, but why it was approved in the first place.

For now, Fakespot remains accessible on the web and in the Google Play store, but the Android version has not been updated since 2019.