On Wednesday, the federal judge decided that Apple had to release the adhesion to the app store and stop collecting commissions in the sale of some applications, limiting the five -year antimonopoly case, aimed at changing the power that Apple controls a large piece of digital economy.
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers from the US District Court for the Northern California district rebuked Apple for thwarting the previous decision in court proceedings and stated that the company must be stopped before the court’s further disobedience. She criticized Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, and accused other managers of Lyan.
Judge Gonzales Rogers ordered Apple in his earlier decision to allow users to provide external links to pay developers directly for services. The application could then avoid 30 % commission that Apple charges in its app store and potentially charge less for services.
Instead, Judge Gonzalez Rogers said on Wednesday that Apple had created a new system that forced an external sale application to pay 27 % of the company’s commission. Apple also created pop -up screens that discouraged customers from paying elsewhere and told them that payments outside the app store may not be secure.
“Apple tried to keep the flow of income worth billions in direct defiance of the court order,” wrote Judge Gonzalez Rogers.
In response, Apple said that Apple can no longer make commissions off -the -store with apps. It also reduced the company in writing rules that would prevent developers from creating buttons or links to pay off the store and say that it cannot create messages to discourage users from purchase. In addition, Judge Gonzalez Rogers asked an American lawyer for the northern district of California to explore the company for criminal contempt.
The decision – the main victory for EPIC and the stinging defeat for Apple – has the potential to change the economy of the application by increasing the money that developers collect and reduce the fees that flow into Apple. This will hit Apple in one of Apple’s main businesses, with its long -most important goal stores to download mobile games, productivity tools and other programs for people.
“There will be a lot of widths for developers to get better offers and consumers to get better offers,” said Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic. “It’s a great, wonderful day for everyone.”
Apple spokesman, Olivia Dalton, said in its statement: “We are strongly disagree with the decision. We will comply with the court order and appeal.”
Apple shares dropped by 1.5 percent in clock trading.
Epic, manufacturer of Fortnite, brought a antimonopolous action against Apple in 2020. In the Epic suit, Apple accused Apple of applying applications to use their payment system in exchange for access to the app store, which is the only way to distribute applications to the iPhone. The rules allowed Apple to collect up to 30 % commission for many transactions.
The App Store is a large part of almost $ 100 billion in the annual income of services that Apple collects.
In the decision two years later, Judge Gonzalez Rogers ceased to claim that Apple had a monopoly mobile market on the market, as Epic claimed. This meant that Apple avoided the worst possible result of the case. However, it found that the company violated California laws against unfair competition by preventing developers from offering alternative ways to pay for applications.
Last year, Epic complained to the court that Apple did not follow the decision because he created a new set of fees and rules for developers. The judge ordered Apple to provide documents explaining how he came up with a new system.
Apple documents have shown that they have tried to discourage alternative payments and maintain as much as possible their traditional 30 % commission. At a July 2023 meeting, Phil Schiller, who oversees the App Store, defended that Apple would not take any commission, but Luca Maestri, at that time, the financial boss of Apple, pushed a fee of 27 percent. According to the documents, Mr. Cook stood with Mr. Maesti.
Mr. Cook also asked that when people clicked links and paid for applications outside the app, they would appear on the “Scare” screen saying that “Apple’s privacy and security are not covered by Apple’s shopping”.
“Apple knew exactly what he was doing, and he chose the most contradictory option at every step,” said Judge Gonzalez Rogers.
She said that Apple’s executives “lied directly under the oath” and added: “Cook was wrong.”
