A California court has ruled that Apple violated state competition law by banning app developers from using other in-app payment methods other than its own, which include a 30% commission.
The decision could clear the way for cryptocurrency and non-fungible token (NFT) projects to add more functionality to their iOS apps.
On April 24, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in Apple v. Epic Games, creators of the video game Fortnite. The court upheld the lower court's decision from 2021 and said Apple's anti-reverse clause hurt Epic.
The anti-reverse clause is an Apple policy that states that iOS developers cannot communicate out-of-app payment methods through certain mechanisms, such as in-app links. The court wrote that the policy increased the cost of Epic subsidiary apps that remained on Apple's App Store and prevented other app users from becoming potential Epic Games consumers. Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney tweeted on April 24 that the ruling "frees iOS development by allowing them to direct consumers to alternative payment solutions." By".
Fortunately, the court's positive decision to strike down Apple's anti-pivot clause left iOS developers free to bring consumers to the web and do business with them directly. We are working on next steps. While the court ruled in Apple's favor on most issues, the tech giant failed to demonstrate that the anti-reverse clause should not apply to Epic Games, as it terminated Epic Games' iOS developer account in August 2020. The court ruled that since then, Epic Games would have earned additional revenue by applying the “network sharing test" for competitor lawsuits and the "balance test" for consumer lawsuits in addition to Apple's policy and found the anti-steering clause "unfair" under These two tests.
The court looked at Apple's anti-steering violation from another angle, ruling that consumers would flock directly to Epic Games if they learned that Epic Games' 12% commission rate was much lower than Apple's 30%.
"If consumers understand the lower app prices that come with developers reducing costs and being able to substitute platforms for less, they will do so increasing the revenue generated by the Epic Games Store." If Apple doesn't appeal the ruling, it could set a case law precedent that benefits creators of cryptocurrency and non-fungible token apps by not paying Apple's 30% “tax.” Decentralized exchange Uniswap is one of the latest cryptocurrency projects to hit the App Store, though Apple initially paused its launch in March.
Nearly two months ago, the European Union instituted new antitrust rules requiring Apple to allow third-party app stores on its devices, which in turn allows consumers to circumvent Apple's 30% commission.
However, in December, Apple interfered with NFT transactions sent on Coinbase's self-hosted wallet, claiming that it had the right to “charge a 30% gas fee” through in-app purchases.
