Back in April, District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers delivered a harsh verdict finding that Apple “willfully violated” her 2021 restraining order designed for opening payments in the iOS App Store. That contempt has now been almost entirely upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and Epic Games' Tim Sweeney, he told Ars, hopes it will “bring a lot of good to developers and I think will start to really change the landscape of the App Store around the world.”
ResolutionThe document, signed by a three-judge panel of the appeals court, confirmed that Apple's initial attempts to charge a 27 percent commission to iOS developers using external payment methods “had a prohibitive effect in violation of the injunction.” Likewise, Apple's restrictions on how external links should be created were too broad; The Court of Appeal believes that Apple can only ensure that internal and external payment options are presented equally.
The appeals court also agreed that Apple acted “in bad faith” by refusing to comply with the injunction and by rejecting viable, compliant alternatives in internal discussions. The appeals court was also unpersuaded by Apple's process-oriented arguments, saying the district court correctly assessed materials that Apple argued were protected by attorney-client privilege.
The district court prohibited Apple from bringing charges any fees for payments made outside the App Store, the appeals court now suggests that Apple should still be able to charge a “reasonable fee” based on its “actual costs of ensuring user security and privacy.” It will be up to Apple and the district court to determine what that “reasonable fee” should look like in the future.
However, speaking to reporters on Thursday evening, Epic founder and CEO Tim Sweeney said he believes there should be “super, super, minor fees” in the order of “tens or hundreds of dollars” every time an iOS app update goes through Apple for review. That should be more than enough to compensate employees reviewing apps to make sure external payment links aren't fraudulent, and lead to a system of “regular commissions for regular businesses that sell regular things to regular customers,” Sweeney said.
