Apple Dealt An Epic Blow Over ‘Apple Tax,’ Paving The Way For Fortnite To Return On IOS
Aamir Siddiqui / Android Authority
TL;DR
- A U.S. District Judge ruled that Apple violated a previous injunction by imposing new restrictions and commissions on developers using third-party payment methods.
- The Court has restricted Apple from enforcing several practices that limit developer-user communication and maintain an anticompetitive revenue stream.
- After the ruling, Epic Games plans to relaunch Fortnite on iOS in the US next week, and has offered peace with Apple if it implements the changes worldwide.
History is being made now, as a judge has ruled vehemently against Apple in the Epic Games vs Apple case related to in-app payments. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has ruled that, effective immediately, Apple will no longer impede developers’ ability to communicate with users, nor will it levy or impose a new commission on off-app purchases.
In the latest 80-page ruling, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers found Apple in willful violation of the Court’s previous injunction in 2021, which sought to restrain and prohibit Apple’s anticompetitive practices and pricing.
The Court found that Apple’s 30% commission on in-app purchases allowed it to reap “supracompetitive operating margins” that were not tied to the value of its intellectual property. The Court notes that Apple responded with a 27% commission on off-app purchases that was again tied to nothing.
The Court also prohibited Apple from stopping developers from communicating directly with consumers to inform them of other purchase mechanisms. Apple responded with new barriers, including full-page “scare screens” and more. The Court notes that Apple aimed to dissuade customers from using these alternative purchase opportunities and maintain its anticompetitive revenue stream.
The Court came down heavily on Apple, and you can assess it for yourself based on just this one paragraph from the ruling:
The ruling mentions that Apple chose to defy the Court’s order and that it tried to maintain an anticompetitive revenue stream. As a result, the Court has ruled that Apple cannot:
- Impose any commission or fee on purchases consumers make outside an app.
- Restrict or condition the style, language, formatting, quantity, flow, or placement of links for purchases outside of an app.
- Prohibit or limit buttons or other calls to action outside an app.
- Exclude certain categories of apps and developers from obtaining link access.
- Interfere with consumers’ choice to proceed in or out of an app by using anything other than a neutral message apprising users that they are going to a third-party site.
- Restrict a developer from using dynamic links that bring consumers to a specific product page in a logged-in state rather than a statically defined page.
These restrictions on Apple (which prevent the company from imposing restrictions on app developers) are effective immediately.
The Court also served an icy-cold closing note to Apple:
Apple’s response to the Court ruling
Apple’s senior director of corporate communications, Olivia Dalton, sent this statement to The Verge:
We strongly disagree with the decision. We will comply with the court’s order and we will appeal.
Epic’s response to the Court ruling
While Apple had little to say about the Court’s decision, Epic did have plenty. Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney announced that Fortnite will return to the iOS App Store in the US next week.
Epic is also extending a “peace proposal” to Apple: If Apple extends the Court’s friction-free, Apple-tax-free framework worldwide, Epic will return Fortnite to the App Store worldwide and drop current and future litigation on the topic.
Given how strongly Apple has fought to protect its revenue stream, whether they will accept the proposal remains to be seen.
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