In April, District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers issued a scathing ruling, finding that Apple was “willfully violating” its 2021 injunction by intending to open up iOS App Store payments. That finding of contempt of court has now been almost entirely upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, a development that Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney told Ars he hopes will “do a lot of good for developers and I think will really start to change the state of the App Store around the world.”
The ruling, signed by a panel of three appellate court judges, confirmed that Apple’s charge of charging iOS developers a 27 percent fee using external payment options “had a chilling effect that violated the injunction.” Similarly, Apple’s restrictions on how those external links should be designed were overly broad; The appeals court suggests that Apple could simply ensure that internal and external payment options are presented equally.
The appeals court also agreed that Apple acted in “bad faith” by refusing to comply with the injunction and by rejecting viable, compliance options in internal discussions. And the appeals court was also not convinced by Apple’s process-focused arguments, saying that the district court properly evaluated the materials that Apple argued were protected by the attorney-client privilege.
While the district court has stopped Apple from imposing charges Any Fees for payments made outside its App Store, the appeals court now suggests that Apple should still be able to charge a “reasonable fee” based on “the actual cost to ensure user security and privacy.” It will be up to Apple and the district court to decide what that type of “reasonable fee” should look like going forward.
However, speaking to reporters Thursday night, Epic founder and CEO Tim Sweeney said he believed there should be a “super super minor fee” whenever an iOS app update goes to Apple for review, on the order of “tens or hundreds of dollars.” This should be more than enough to compensate the staff reviewing apps to ensure that external payment links are not scams and lead to a system of “normal fees for normal businesses that sell normal things to normal customers,” Sweeney said.
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