A judge just blew up Apple’s control of the App Store
1 min read
Summary
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in the Epic Games v Apple antitrust lawsuit has ruled that the tech giant can no longer impose its app store fees on in-app purchases, or restrict developers from informing users of alternative payment options.
The ruling follows yesterday’s testimony from CEO Tim Cook in which he defended the company’s app store practices as “reasonable”, a decision that has cost Apple around $9bn.
It also banned the company from restricting developers from informing users about alternative payment options or directing them to different purchasing mechanisms.
Effective immediately, Apple’s App store fees of between 15% and 30% are only applicable to purchases made within apps, and not on those made through developers’ websites.
As previously reported, the changes to App store rules will likely see Apple’s cut of revenue from the store reduce by a third, equivalent to $14bn in annual fees.
Parent company, Alphabet, is set to see its annual net profit of 110bnreducebyasmuchas2.5bn.