Today, a ruling was reached in an Epic Games vs Apple court case and legal battle that effectively started in August of 2020. Apple will probably appeal to the part of the choice that’d otherwise allow additional permissions for iOS app developers. But, for now, the ruling is that app developers won’t be prohibited from adding purchasing mechanisms in their apps.
The Epic Games vs Apple trial ruling by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers sets an injunction that’ll require Apple to permit developers within the USA to incorporate their in-app payment systems through a spread of means. These include metadata buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to buying mechanisms.
This ruling also prohibits Apple from stopping developers from communicating with customers through “points of contact obtained voluntarily from customers through account registration within the app.” This was all thanks to the court finding that Apple engaged in “anticompetitive conduct under California’s competition laws.”
In all other counts, the court found in favour of Apple. The court couldn’t conclude that Apple was a monopolist under federal or state antitrust laws. Judge Rogers ruling included the following: “While the Court finds that Apple enjoys considerable market share of over 55% and extraordinarily high profit margins, these factors alone don’t show antitrust conduct. Success isn’t illegal.”
Judge Rogers ruled that Epic Games will pay damages adequate to 30% of revenue collected by the corporate via the Fortnite app on iOS through direct payment options. This ruling included the months between August and October 2020 (each of those being months when the app was available for iOS with said direct payment options), PLUS any longer iOS-based take advantage of Fortnite collected between November 2020 and September 10, 2021, with interest.
In the three months mentioned, Epic Games reported revenue from iOS of USD 12,167,719. Approximately 30% of that’s $3,650,315 USD. Epic Games will likely get to pay Apple an immense amount of money; in any case, if you’d wish to investigate this case further, head to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California or tap into the timeline of earlier investigations below.
