The California Northern District Court Judge, Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers, issued a verdict in the Apple v Epic Games case — the court sided with Apple on all but one issue.
iPhone creators can no longer prohibit third-party developers from including information on alternative payment methods or can’t force app developers to use Apple payment system. Apple must change the App Store rules within 90 days, by December 9th.
However, the court recognized Apple’s argument that Epic would have committed a breach of contract as valid when last year it decided to introduce a link in Fortnite that bypassed in-app purchases from the App Store.
For this reason, Epic is required to compensate Apple for an amount equal to 30% of the revenue of the more than $12 million that the company has raised from iOS users through direct payments between August 2020 and October 2020, plus 30% of any turnover within this description that Epic collected from November 1, 2020 until the date of the sentence, plus interest.
Tim Sweeney, Epic Games CEO & Founder, did not celebrate and promised to continue fighting for “fair competition” between payment methods in applications and between application stores. Epic has announced that it will appeal the court’s decision, although it is currently unclear on what ground it may seek to pursue the appeal.
