AppLovin has sued rival Unity Technologies and asked a court for a temporary restraining order, escalating a dispute over data collection. AppLovin alleges that Unity’s Ad Quality software development kit (SDK) improperly collects sensitive data from publishers using AppLovin’s MAX advertising mediation platform. The dispute has moved beyond lawyers’ letters to formal court proceedings and an arbitration demand.
Filed in the Superior Court of California, the lawsuit alleges Unity accesses proprietary information, including per-impression revenue, ad waterfall configurations and user engagement data. AppLovin says the information could be used to train Unity’s competing ad models.
Unity calls the lawsuit an anti-competitive tactic by a dominant company. It says its tool helps prevent inappropriate ads.