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IOS app developers should be allowed to direct users to payment options other than those provided by Apple, a US judge ruled in Epic v. Apple. Apple has 90 days, until December 9, to comply.
In the full ruling, the judge wrote that Apple is not “a monopoly under federal or state antitrust laws.” The court, however, found that Apple “is engaging in anti-competitive behavior under California competition laws.”
Apple said the decision was a victory. “Today, the court confirmed what we have known all along: the App Store does not violate antitrust law,” the company said in a statement. As the court recognized, “success is not illegal.” Apple faces stiff competition in every segment in which we do business, and we believe customers and developers choose us because our products and services are the best in the world, and we remain committed to making the App Store a safe and trustworthy marketplace.
The court also ruled that the Epic alternative payment system set up inside Fortnite was a breach of their contract with Apple, and Epic will have to pay 30% of the revenue collected since then – around $ 3.5 million. This is a relatively paltry sum, however, given the potential figures at stake on the outcome of this decision.
Tim Sweeney made a statement via Twitter, writing that “Today’s decision is not a victory for developers or consumers. Epic is fighting for fair competition between integrated payment methods and app stores for a billion consumers. ”
Today’s decision is not a victory for developers or for consumers. Epic is fighting for fair competition between in-app payment methods and app stores for a billion consumers. https://t.co/cGTBxThnsP
– Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) September 10, 2021
The ruling only affects in-app purchases, with the App Store remaining the only place users can go to download new iOS apps. In-app purchases account for the majority of the $ 19 billion a year the App Store earns for Apple, although the move also affects only US-based companies, which are said to account for a third of the App Store’s total revenue. . Apple faces other similar decisions in other jurisdictions, as South Korean lawmakers ruled in August that Apple and Google must license third-party payment systems.
If you’ve used the App Store before, you’ll know that many of the most popular apps are free to download and supported through in-app purchases. If these in-app payments can offer alternatives that don’t require developers to give Apple a share of the money, it looks likely to have a huge impact on the market.
This could have consequences for other application platforms as well. Epic has a similar lawsuit pending against Google. Documents released in connection with the case allege that Google made deals with competing app stores to prevent them from making deals with Epic.
All this assumes that the date of December 9 is not delayed by appeals. In follow-up tweets, Epic’s Tim Sweeney hinted at his intention to appeal the ruling, saying they “will continue to fight.”
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