Epic v Apple: Judge Rules Apple Can’t Stop Developers From Adding Payment Links

In the Epic v Apple case, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers issued a permanent injunction against Apple regarding App Store rules (via The Verge).

In-App Payment Rules

The ruling 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 (ii) communicating with customers through points of contact obtained voluntarily from customers through account registration within the app.

Judge Gonzalez-Rogers explained: “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.” She continued by saying that under California’s competition laws Apple has not engaged in anti-competitive behavior.

Evan Greer (she/her), Director of Fight for the Future, said the decision doesn’t go far enough:

Unfortunately, this court decision does nothing to address the real harm of Apple’s restrictive and monopolistic app store policies. As long as Apple maintains an authoritarian stranglehold over what software millions of people can and can’t run on their phones, the company will be actively helping repressive governments undermine human rights and censor apps used by journalists, dissidents, and vulnerable communities. The bottom line is that you can’t be a values-driven privacy company and an aspiring monopoly at the same time.