AppLovin sues Unity over Ad Quality data. It wants collection stopped within five days

The two biggest names in mobile game advertising are now in court. AppLovin asked a San Francisco court on 29 September to stop Unity collecting data about ads AppLovin wins, Digiday reported. The court petition runs alongside a separate arbitration claim filed on 27 September.

AppLovin says Unity’s Ad Quality reads its auction data

Ad Quality is a Unity tool that has shipped inside its LevelPlay software kit since May 2025. According to AppLovin’s filings, it captures details of impressions AppLovin wins inside publishers’ apps. That includes the ad creative, the advertiser, revenue per impression, device and user identifiers, and even where and when a player touches the screen.

AppLovin argues Unity could use that data to train its own bidding models, and that this breaks a header bidding agreement the two signed in October 2021, PPC Land reported from the court papers. The case number is CPF-26-520212 and much of the record is sealed under California trade secrets law.

AppLovin asks for five business days and thirty days

The filing asks the court to make Unity stop collecting AppLovin’s “Protected Data” within five business days, and to change the Ad Quality kit within 30 days. AppLovin also wants Unity to delete the data from its systems and models. A hearing was set for 30 September, and no ruling had been reported by the morning of 1 October.

Unity calls the case an attack on a small free product

Unity told Digiday that AppLovin wants to shut down “a small, free product” and will do anything to slow it down. It said Ad Quality only collects data with permission and that AppLovin runs a “far more intrusive” tool of its own. Unity offered on 16 September to switch off collection in auctions run through AppLovin’s MAX, but AppLovin turned it down.

The fight over who sees auction data is not limited to mobile. Apple’s browser now blocks The Trade Desk ads in iOS 27 Safari, and US regulators have accused Amazon of quietly raising its ad auction prices.

App developers that run both companies’ tools can open their LevelPlay or MAX setup today and check which version of the Ad Quality kit is live. If the court grants the order, that kit has to change within 30 days.