AppLovin sues Unity over Ad Quality SDK data collection

AppLovin has filed for a temporary restraining order against Unity in Superior Court in San Francisco, accusing the company of collecting data through Unity's Ad Quality SDK without permission.

According to AppLovin's complaint, Unity built harvested data into models used against AppLovin in live ad auctions. The company claims Unity trained its own systems on AppLovin's output to anticipate its bidding decisions.

AppLovin wants the court to bar Unity from collecting, intercepting, or using what it calls "Protected Data" tied to auctions AppLovin wins and serves through its MAX mediation platform. This includes clearing prices, auction IDs, impression IDs, and mediation waterfall data. AppLovin is asking that collection stop within five business days and that the SDK be modified within 30 days.

Unity dismissed the claims as anticompetitive. "AppLovin's legal filings against us are a classic case of a dominant incumbent resorting to litigation and intimidation to address increased competition and slowing growth," the company said. Unity stated that Ad Quality helps prevent inappropriate and harmful ads from appearing in games and that customers choose to share data with it. "Despite that performance greatly benefiting our mutual customers, or rather because of it, they will do anything to slow it down," Unity said.

AppLovin has also launched a separate JAMS arbitration against Unity, pursuing claims for breach of contract, trade-secret misappropriation, and violations of California's unfair competition law.

Court papers show both sides attempted to settle beforehand. AppLovin sent a cease-and-desist in August, and Unity offered to shut off Ad Quality's data collection from MAX-mediated auctions within five business days. AppLovin rejected the offer because it only covered future collection and did not address data already gathered or models built from it.

Unity pointed to AppLovin's Ad Review product, arguing it is "far more intrusive" than Ad Quality. AppLovin disputed this, claiming Ad Review only touches impressions mediated through MAX and exists to catch problematic ads, not build profiles or train models.