Judge orders Apple to allow third-party payments in App Store


Apple lost one argument and won another in a court decision today. The decision stems from a lawsuit filed by Epic Games alleging unfair practices in gaming.

The New York Times:

The judge, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, said Apple violated California’s laws against unfair competition by barring app developers from directing customers to other ways to pay for their services. She ordered Apple to start letting developers include links in their apps to other payment methods within 90 days.

That means when customers sign up for a subscription or buy a digital service or item in an iPhone app, companies can now steer those customers to outside websites to complete the transaction. That would allow those companies to avoid Apple’s commission on the sale, which can be as high as 30 percent.

But Judge Gonzalez Rogers stopped short of declaring that Apple had a monopoly in the market of mobile games, which would have been a worst-case scenario for the company. She also said Epic had breached its contract with Apple when it allowed Fortnite users to pay it directly, instead of via Apple, inside its iPhone app last year.

Apple will appeal the case and most likely will seek a delay until its appeal is heard. Likely, this will drag out for a year or longer and then maybe be appealed again to the U.S. Supreme Court by the loser.

If the ruling holds, we would have to see how such a solution would be implemented. But it appears, at least in this case, Apple will be permitted to still require installations through the App Store. It would only need to permit developers to handle their own payment processing.