A judge has ruled on the Epic Games v. Apple court case, issuing a permanent injunction that requires Apple to allow other forms of in-app purchases that may circumvent its App Store transaction fee.
The official court document states that Apple is "permanently restrained and enjoined from prohibiting developers from 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 communicating with customers through points of contact obtained voluntarily from customers through account registration within the app." The injunction will take effect in 90 days.
Judge Gonzalez-Rogers further stated that while the court cannot ultimately prove that Apple is a monopolistic company, as was alleged by Epic Games, the tech giant does participate in anti-competitive practices. Apple places a 30% transaction fee on all in-app purchases conducted through the App Store, a process it views as a necessary operating cost. Epic Games initially sued the company after its hyper-popular battle royale shooter Fortnite was removed from the App Store due to the developer/publisher implementing a payment system that circumvented the App Store's mandatory transaction free.
“The relevant market here is digital mobile gaming transactions, not gaming generally and not Apple’s own internal operating systems related to the App Store,” writes Gonzalez-Rogers. The judge continued, saying that while Apple "enjoys considerable market share of over 55% and extraordinarily high profit margins, these factors alone do not show antitrust conduct.”
Despite the issuing of the injunction, Epic Games is not leaving the legal battle without a few scars of its own. As it failed to prove that Apple is an "illegal monopolist," the company has been ordered to pay 30% of all iOs-based Fortnite revenue generated since August 2020 to Apple.
While the ruling is a massive victory for Epic Games, the ramifications stretch far beyond this case, and the injunction will likely have a major impact on gaming and other mobile-based industries. Developers will now be able to implement their own forms of in-app monetization without going through the App Store, ultimately avoiding Apple's 30% transaction fee. Epic Games is still embroiled in a legal battle with Google over a similar premise.
What this means for Fortnite on Apple devices is currently unknown. It's possible that Apple will lift its ban on the popular mobile game and allow Epic Games to run its own Item Shop through the app itself. We'll know more once the injunction takes effect on Dec. 9.
Source: The Verge