A federal judge issued a permanent injunction barring Apple from preventing developers from including other forms of in-app payment in their iOS apps, in a win for Epic Games.
The injunction is scheduled to take effect Dec. 9, which is 90 days from the issuance of the order Friday.
In August 2020, Epic Games, creator of massively popular game “Fortnite,” sued over the 30% cut Apple takes on all in-app purchases and its policy that forbids outside payment methods. After Apple kicked “Fortnite” off the App Store, the game’s iOS players dropped 60% in less than a month, Epic has claimed.
Apple has been expected to appeal any unfavorable ruling in the case. Apple and Epic reps did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The judge hearing the case, U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, determined that Apple violated California’s Unfair Competition law.
According to the order issued Friday, Apple is permanently restrained and enjoined from “prohibiting developers from (i) 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 and (ii) communicating with customers through points of contact obtained voluntarily from customers through account registration within the app.”
The ruling in the year-long case comes after Apple reached a settlement in a 2019 class-action lawsuit on behalf of app developers alleging that the tech giant’s App Store policies are anticompetitive and result in exorbitant fees. Under that agreement, Apple agreed to not block app developers’ efforts to communicate to users that they can use third-party payment platforms where Apple does not get a cut of sales — although Apple was still blocking such messaging within the apps themselves. The new injunction would require Apple to let app developers include links to non-Apple payment mechanisms in iOS apps directly.
In 2020, consumers worldwide spent $72.3 billion in the Apple App Store, up 30% year over year, according to estimates by research firm Sensor Tower.
The backlash among developers against Apple’s App Store “tax” and restrictive policies has blossomed into a larger political issue as lawmakers and regulators in the U.S. and abroad look to curb the economic power of huge tech companies, including Google. Bills have been introduced in the Senate and House that aim to force the two big app stores to relinquish their virtual monopoly control over the app ecosystem.
Epic also has sued Google over the same issue, as it applies to the Google Play store, a case that remains pending; “Fortnite” also has been booted from Google Play.