Latest News U.S. Federal Judge and Epic Games Contest Whether Apple is in compliance with an Order that permits payment Steering
A hearing on the evidence in the Epic Games v. Apple trial is looking into the question of whether Apple is in fact complying with U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers' order that allowed developers of apps the ability to "steer" users toward alternative payment options outside the App Store's native app.
The evidentiary hearing regarding Apple's compliance with the law started on Wednesday, May 8. AP reports that judge Gonzalez Rogers " questioned whether Apple has put up a gauntlet of exasperating obstacles so as to block users the use of other payment methods within iPhone apps," regardless of a court's direction.
HTML1Hearing Focused on Whether Apple Policy Doesn't Change.
The AP article also explains Judge Gonzalez Rogers' tone suggested the Apple's approach was primarily about making sure Apple's profit margins are protected and not ensuring that it is in line with the purpose in her choice to allow the steering of customers as well as to improve iPhone users' ability to move seamlessly between different payment options. The article points out that, according to the Epic document, Apple is still blocking the developers from directing users to alternative payment methods that have lower prices.
The AP report continues to claim that during the proceedings Apple chief executive of the iPhone App Store, Matthew Fischer stated that Apple was granted permission to applications that use 38 applications that display hyperlinks to payment platforms, "a fraction of the around two million iPhone apps that are accessible in the U.S."
PC Mag points out that this low application number 38 of the 65,000 app developers that offer in-app purchases Most likely, it is because of the price as the 27 percentage Apple fee and the additional charge for credit cards could result in a more expensive overall price for developers.
Apple Executive 'Unaware' of the higher overall cost concern
The LAW360 article that ran on May 10, 2015, describes the proceedings when Epic attorney Yonatan Even, as well as the court judge Gonzalez Rogers questioned Apple Finance Vice President Alex Roman. Even mentioned the reduced price of 3% for Apple -- which is 27% when transactions are taking place outside apps for Apple devices, as opposed the usual 30 percent in-app cost. Epic has also presented evidence that proves the average cost of processing transactions within the U.S. is 3.5% in addition to the CEO of a yoga app who claimed that they pay 3.5 percentage to 6.5 percent in fees for payment processing. After that, Roman said he was not aware of the fact, Even reiterated that the purpose was to establish the fee to allow the creators to give users a better price by asking Roman to explain what he thought he knew about this. A judge Gonzalez Rogers is quoted as saying to Roman that "'It appears that you made lots of decisions that were based on little details or facts about the situation,' she wrote. It sounds as if the objective was to keep ... the income that you had prior to the ruling.'" Read the LAW360 article here.
We're pleased to have the Judge's Side along with Epic
The CEO David Nachman states that "We're happy to see that the judge support of Epic with regard to this matter. We're hopeful that we can persuade the judge to instruct Apple to allow steering to be made available to app and game developers without fees and unnecessary limitations. Our goal is to allow worldwide commerce for software and digital products companies. we're joined by our customers in celebrating this step towards an accessible and open commerce experience for mobile."
Additional Antitrust Action against Apple initiated through the US Justice Department
As well as in addition of the Epic Games case, the U.S. Justice Department launched an antitrust lawsuit against Apple during the month of March 2024, alleging that Apple has monopoly power over the market for smartphones, which includes (among numerous others) regarding digital payments.
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