Last week a federal judge over Apple’s handling of fees for in-app transactions. As promised, Apple the latest decision in the protracted over the company’s anti-competitive App Store policies. The initial 2021 ruling attempting to loosen Apple’s grip on in-app sales was all but ignored, as the company went to great lengths in attempting to circumvent the decision.
While the company , it has now filed its promised appeal after it made clear last week that it strongly disagreed with the court’s decision. It remains to be seen if there is any chance for Apple to win the appeal, as Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers sternly reprimanded Apple in her latest ruling.
“Apple willfully chose not to comply with this Court’s Injunction. It did so with the express intent to create new anticompetitive barriers which would, by design and in effect, maintain a valued revenue stream; a revenue stream previously found to be anticompetitive. That it thought this Court would tolerate such insubordination was a gross miscalculation.”
It’s not clear what Apple’s legal arguments will be or on what grounds the company is asserting its appeal. While the issue continues to be fought out in court, companies with a large presence on iOS like Epic Games and to establish external payment methods for their apps. There is every chance that this legal battle could continue for years as Apple continues to defend one of its prime revenue streams and insist on its authority to take a commission from any transactions originating in apps from the App Store.
