In a major blow to Apple, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled the company “willfully” violates its 2021 injunction. The order required Apple to allow developers to include in-app links directing users to third-party payment options on the web.
“Apple’s continued attempts to interfere with competition will not be tolerated,” says Judge Gonzalez in the ruling.
Judge slams Apple for willful violation of injunction
In 2021, as part of the Apple vs. Epic Games saga, the court ordered Apple to allow developers to link to external payment processors within their apps. Ideally, this would have allowed developers to collect payments from their customers without incurring any transaction fees from Apple.
However, Apple being Apple, it still required developers to pay a commission of 12% to 27% on these transactions. Even the mechanism for allowing such external payments might prove so onerous that developers take a pass. This includes fling filing an external Link Entitlement request form with the relevant information. Plus, this option is only available on the iOS and iPadOS App Store in the U.S.
Unsurprisingly, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers called out Apple for this anti-competitive behavior.
“Apple’s response to the Injunction strains credulity. After two sets of evidentiary hearings, the truth emerged. Apple, despite knowing its obligations thereunder, thwarted the Injunction’s goals, and continued its anticompetitive conduct solely to maintain its revenue stream. Remarkably, Apple believed that this Court would not see through its obvious cover-up (the 2024 evidentiary hearing),” says Judge Gonzalez.
Apple must make immediate changes to the App Store
The court ruled that, effective immediately, Apple cannot take any commission or fee on purchases made by users outside of the App Store. The ruling also states that Apple cannot place restrictions on the style, formatting, or placement of the external link.
Other terms that Apple must adhere to include:
- Prohibiting or limiting the use of buttons or other calls to action, or otherwise conditioning the content, style, language, formatting, flow or placement of these devices for purchases outside an app;
- Excluding certain categories of apps and developers from obtaining link access;
- Interfering 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;
- Restricting a developer’s use of dynamic links that bring consumers to a specific product page in a logged-in state rather than to a statically defined page, including restricting apps from passing on product details, user details or other information that refers to the user intending to make a purchase
In a statement to The Verge, Apple’s senior director of corporate communications, Olivia Dalton, said, “We strongly disagree with the decision. We will comply with the court’s order and we will appeal.”
