Judge denies Apple appeal to delay App Store third party payment implementation
Apple was dealt a blow this evening in their court battle with Epic Games. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said she won't stay the order regarding third party payment offerings.
It's been quiet on the Apple vs. Epic Games front. Too quiet. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers kicked everything up a notch this evening when she denied Apple's appeal for her to stay the order requiring modification of App Store's policies around third party payment systems. The company has until December 9, 2021 to comply with the ruling.
Breaking: Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers says she won't stay the order requiring Apple to modify its guidelines to let developers link out or allow consumers to know about cheaper options. The company must comply by Dec. 9
— Leah AntiTrustButVer1fy Nylen 🐧 (@leah_nylen) November 10, 2021
Here's the statement from Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers:
Apple’s motion is based on a selective reading of this Court’s findings and ignores all of the findings which supported the injunction, namely incipient antitrust conduct including supercompetitive commission rates resulting in extraordinarily high operating margins. The evidence from the trial revealed that the party who would benefit primarily from a stay pending all resolution of all appeals is Apple. Apple has provided no credible reason for the Court to believe that the injunction would cause the professed devastation.
Apple (AAPL) stock had initially reacted negatively to the App Store injunction back in September, but recovered and found its footing following the appeal. Epic Games' appeal of the monopoly ruling has yet to get the Dikembe Mutumbo treatment from Judge Gonzalez Rogers, so we will have to keep an eye on where things are headed in this legal battle.
We asked Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney what he thought of implementing a transaction system that uses mobile browsers to facilitate purchases, and here's what he had to say back in September of 2020:
That’s a bad customer experience which Apple forces on developers in order to prevent fair competition for payment processing. It would be wrong to play along with that.
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) September 24, 2020
While today is a win for some developers on the App Store ecosystem, it appears that Fortnite mobile fans will have to keep waiting for something to give in the battle between Apple and Epic Games. It remains to be seen just how many Apple users will make the effort to pay via third party services on Safari, as it is admittedly less user-friendly. There's also the question of if Apple users really care where the revenue for apps goes. Surely some people out there care about creators of apps, but it is going to be hard to see much change from this new App Store policy in a world where most people block ads and scoff at any monetization efforts on the Internet.
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