Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has issued a permanent injunction which stated that no longer Apple will be allowed to prohibit developers from providing links or other communications that will navigate users away from Apple in-app purchasing.
The injunction reads, “Apple Inc. and its officers, agents, servants, employees, and any person in active concert or participation with them (“Apple”), are hereby 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 injunction is scheduled to take effect in 90 days — on 9December— unless it is enjoined by a higher court.
“The court cannot ultimately conclude that Apple is a monopolist under either federal or state antitrust laws.
In a separate judgment, the court asserted that Epic Games had breached Apple’s contract when it introduced an alternative payment system in the Fortnite app and because of which Epic must pay Apple 30 per cent of all revenue collected through the system since the time it was implemented which is more than $3.5 million as per The Verge.
“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,” Gonzalez Rogers also wrote.
Post the decision revealed here are the reactions from Apple and Epic Games as per CNBC
“We are very pleased with the court’s ruling and we consider this a huge win for Apple,” Apple general counsel Kate Adams said.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney criticised in twitter “Today’s ruling isn’t a win for developers or for consumers.Epic is fighting for fair competition among in-app payment methods and app stores for a billion consumers.”
