i think it's allowed to be sold as cider if there's nothing added, whereas apple "juice" can and almost certainly does have sugar added. pretty much everything in the US sold as "juice" is like made from extracted concentrates, artificial flavoring and some cheaper, industrial sweetener like HFCS or whatever. i bet the cost of producing cider is like 10x what the cost of producing "juice" is in the US due to subsidies, price supports, and trade imbalances with sugar producing countries.