Apple’s not going to be able to force app store developers to use its payment system for in-app purchases for the time being, thanks to a new court order coming out from Epic’s antitrust lawsuit against the company.
US Northern California District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers today ruled in the long-running Epic Games v. Apple that Apple has engaged in anti-competitive behavior violating California’s Unfair Competition Law, but stopped short of calling Apple a monopoly. This resulted in an injunction against Apple prohibiting the company from requiring developers to use its own in-app payment system, but also in a fee against Epic for breaching its contract with Apple.
This means that all your favorite mobile games (and even productivity apps) will be able to direct users to outside payment options for microtransactions or subscriptions, avoiding the 30% cut that Apple takes from its own system, which developers have had no choice to use until today. The injunction gives Apple 90 days to set this up, unless it a higher court gets involved.
“Apple has not adequately justified its 30% rate,” Judge Gonzalez Rogers wrote in her opinion on the case. While she acknowledged Apple’s arguments that the use of the app store and the access to Apple’s consumer base does justify a commission, she did not agree that the company adequately argued in favor of its high 30% cut.
