HomeNewsFortnite
Epic vs. Apple: US court rules Apple must allow third-party payment systemsEpic lost on all counts but one, but it’s enormous
Epic lost on all counts but one, but it’s enormous
In thefull ruling, the judge wrote that Apple is not “a monopolist under either federal or state antitrust laws.” The court did however find that Apple “is engaging in anti-competitive conduct under California’s competition laws.”
Houston, We Have A Quiz | Mystery Steam Reviews (Video Games That Go To The Moon)Watch on YouTube
Houston, We Have A Quiz | Mystery Steam Reviews (Video Games That Go To The Moon)
Apple declared the ruling a victory. “Today the court has affirmed what we’ve known all along: the App Store is not in violation of antitrust law,” the company said in a statement. “As the court recognized ‘success is not illegal.’ Apple faces rigorous 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. We remain committed to ensuring the App Store is a safe and trusted marketplace.”
The court also ruled that the alternative payment system Epic implemented inside Fortnite was a breach of their contract with Apple, and Epic will have to pay 30% of the revenue collected since - around $3.5 million. That’s a relatively paltry sum however given the potential figures at stake on the outcome of this ruling.
Tim Sweeney made a statementvia Twitter, writing that “Today’s ruling isn’t a win for developers or for consumers. Epic is fighting for fair competition among in-app payment methods and app stores for a billion consumers.”
Today’s ruling isn’t a win for developers or for consumers. Epic is fighting for fair competition among in-app payment methods and app stores for a billion consumers.https://t.co/cGTBxThnsP— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic)September 10, 2021
Today’s ruling isn’t a win for developers or for consumers. Epic is fighting for fair competition among in-app payment methods and app stores for a billion consumers.https://t.co/cGTBxThnsP
Apple’s “anti-competitive conduct” specifically relates to the “anti-steering” rules in Apple contracts, which prevent developers from even mentioning alternate paymention options. To address that, the ruling declares that Apple are “permanently restrained and enjoined from prohibiting developers from including in their apps and their metadata buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms, in addition to In-App Purchasing…”. In other words, developers must continue to present Apple’s in-app purchase mechanisms, but can now point users at alternatives.
Whether “external links, or other calls to action” means links to an external website, or relatively seamless links to third-party payment systems such as Stripe and PayPal, is up for debate - although certainlysome prominent developersare already interpreting the ruling as generously as possible. It’s also possible Apple could require app developers to offer price parity across all options, preventing the discounts Fortnite offered to users if they paid Epic directly.
The ruling only affects in-app purchases, with the App Store remaining the only place that users can go to download new iOS apps. In-app purchases make up the majority of the $19 billion a year that the App Store makes for Apple, although the ruling also only affects US-based companies, which reportedly makes up a third of total App Store revenue. Apple face other, similar rulings in other territories, withSouth Korean legislators ruling in August that Apple and Google had to allow third-party payment systems.
It could also have consequences for other app platforms. Epic have a similar court case in progress against Google. Documents released as part of that caseallege that Google made deals with rival app stores to prevent them from making deals with Epic.
