Apple will have to allow developers to link from the apps to alternative payment and subscription systems. It is the judgment of Judge Californian Yvonne González Rogers who has presided over the case in front of Epic, developers of the popular Fortnite video game, against Apple for the policies that governed by apps and games at the AppStore Application Store .
The sentence, which in all likelihood will be appealed, could impose a hard blow to Apple's accounts, in which the income from sale of virtual objects or subscriptions in apps and games each time have a greater weight.
"We are very satisfied with the judgment of the court and consider that it is a great victory for Apple. This decision valid for the" Success of Apple is not illegal ", as the judge said. According to the court" Both Apple and the developers, as EPIC Games, have benefited symbiotically from increasing innovation and growth of the ecosystem, "says Kate Adams, Senior VP and Apple's legal advisor, the court has confirmed, after reviewing the evidence of a trial that lasts a duration. 16-day, Apple is not a monopoly in no relevant market and that its agreements with application developers are legal according to antitrust laws. Let me repeat it: The Court determined that Apple is not a monopoly under "Federal or state antitrust laws ", The executive sentence.
The origin of demand is in the commissions that Apple charges for purchases within apps and games. They depend on the content type, but for games that sell virtual objects can reach 30% of each transaction.
Epic tried to skip that commission offering the direct purchase of the Virtual Currency of Fortnite, "Turkeys", from a link in the game menu. This behavior is expressly prohibited in the terms and conditions of Apple for Apps developers and iOS games.
After implementing this alternative payment system, Apple expelled EPIC from the developer program and canceled the distribution of fortnite in iOS. Epic decided to go to court then. The company has also had a similar problem with Fortnite at the Google Apps Store, Google Play, although the judgment of that case has not yet been published.
In recent weeks, Apple has begun to relax some of the AppStore standards for this result. The company, for example, now allows developers by email users the existence of alternative subscription offers and options if they have previously given their consent.
A lawsuit in Japan for a similar situation has taken the company to also accept that certain apps, those that serve audiovisual content, can link to the web to manage accounts and subscriptions.
The new sentence, however, extends these measures to all types of apps and games, allowing developers to highlight the purchase of virtual objects or subscription options next to the native purchase functions in APP within the apps. Apple is 90 days to integrate the new requirements in the terms and conditions of the developers.
Not everything has come out well for EPIC, in any case. The judge has also forced the company to pay Apple 30% of the income obtained with the alternative subscription methods that subreptitiously put into the game from August so far. Although the game stopped being available in summer of 2020, those who already had it installed have been able to continue using it and shopping inside the app.
The amount that EPIC must pay Apple for this concept is greater than 3.6 million dollars.
In South Korea, a court sentenced last week that apps of apps should allow games and applications to use payment services from third parties. EPIC has demanded Apple to re-allow the distribution of fortnite at the country's app store, but at the moment the Apple has not rehabilitated the EPIC account to be able to do so.
Date Of Update: 22 September 2021, 00:12
