The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld most of the 2021 rulings in Epic Games’ lawsuit against Apple, which generally found in Apple’s favor, with a few exceptions. Apple, as before, is not officially considered a monopoly and should not change its policy of developer fees. At the same time, the company must allow links to third-party payment systems.
In a lawsuit less than two years ago, Epic demanded the return of Fortnite to the App Store, a review of Apple’s 30% commission, permission to install alternative app stores, and permission for developers to link to third-party payment systems in apps.
In a 2021 ruling by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, Apple is not a monopoly under US law and is not required to allow the installation of the Epic app store. Also, the company is not obliged to change the fees charged to developers, but must allow links to alternative payment systems within the programs. At the same time, Epik is exempt from paying Apple’s legal costs.
The appeals court panel agreed with Apple’s argument about user safety: the company strictly controls the applications in the App Store, the presence of third-party stores weakened the control. Confirmed Epic’s status as a victim of Apple’s efforts to resist linking to third-party payment services. At the same time, with 9 of the 10 counts of the lawsuit dismissed, Judge Rogers recommended reconsideration of Epic’s failure to pay the defendant’s costs.
Although Apple is hailing the decision as its own victory, both sides have partially gotten their way as a result. Epic Games has been able to send users to its store for payment and has already said that it is working on the next steps. The company also got the opportunity to advertise lower prices outside the App Store. Earlier, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney suggested that Fortnite could return to iOS this year. Apple, in turn, retained the status of its own app store as the only one on the platform and the ability to charge fees at its discretion. The decision may be appealed to the US Supreme Court, and Apple intends to continue the fight.
Apple is doing much better at home than in Europe. Under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a company must allow third-party apps to be installed on its devices bypassing the App Store. Mark Gurman previously wrote that Apple will allow installing programs from only 27 countries of the European Union.
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Sources: Bloomberg, Phone Arena
