Latest news with #Apple-tax-free
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Apple violated app payments injunction, judge rules
This story was originally published on Payments Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Payments Dive newsletter. A federal judge found that Apple 'willfully' violated an injunction limiting the company's fees on app purchases made outside of Apple's ecosystem in a scathing decision that also said an Apple vice president had lied under oath. The ruling Wednesday by District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers represented a significant victory for Epic Games, the maker of the Fortnite video game, which filed its complaint in 2020 challenging Apple's app commissions and strategy toward consumers' purchases. Epic won an injunction the following year. 'There are no do-overs once a party willfully disregards a court order,' Rogers wrote in her order granting Epic's motion to find that Apple had violated the injunction. 'Time is of the essence. The Court will not tolerate further delays.' The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed Rogers' ruling in 2023 and early last year the Supreme Court declined to review the case, allowing the injunction to take effect. During the appeals process, 'at every step Apple considered whether its actions would comply, and at every step Apple chose to maintain its anticompetitive revenue stream over compliance,' wrote Rogers, who sits in Oakland for the Northern District of California. Apple 'strongly' disagrees with the decision, CEO Tim Cook said Thursday, addressing the case on the company's quarterly call with analysts. 'We've complied with the court's order and we're going to appeal,' Cook said in response to a question on how financially material private and potential U.S. litigation might be to the company's services business. He added that Apple is monitoring the U.S. antitrust case against Google, 'but as you point out there's risk associated with them, and the outcome is unclear.' The judge also said an Apple finance executive, Alex Roman, 'outright lied under oath' and offered testimony that was 'replete with misdirection and outright lies.' She referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney to determine whether a criminal contempt prosecution of Apple is warranted. Tim Sweeney, the founder and CEO of North Carolina-based Epic Games, wrote Wednesday on X that his company will return Fortnite to Apple's U.S. App Store next week. He also offered a 'peace proposal' to put the game on Apple's sites globally, and end current and future litigation on the matter, if Apple extends the injunction's 'friction-free, Apple-tax-free framework worldwide.' Early last year, after multiple internal meetings about how to address in- and off-app payments, Apple introduced a plan to charge a 27% fee for payments made using an external purchase link, aimed at avoiding Apple's purchase platform and its prior 30% fee. Epic then contested what Sweeney at the time called Apple's 'bad-faith compliance plan,' which also included an Apple-mandated design flow to direct buyers and a 'scare screen' warning users they were leaving Apple's purview and could face fraud. The judge said she had barred some Apple policies 'that prevented meaningful competition' with in-app purchases. 'Apple rewrote those policies by choosing a different anticompetitive path (that was more expensive for developers) with full knowledge of what it was doing,' Rogers wrote. 'Despite numerous opportunities, not once did Apple choose a path that would have shown compliance.' Lina Khan, the former chair of the Federal Trade Commission, hailed the decision as 'a long-awaited win for innovators, consumers, and the rule of law,' in a post Thursday on the X social media platform. She called Apple's fee 'an exorbitant tax on Americans who use its App Store. Congratulations to everyone who helped ensure fair competition would prevail.' Epic Games sued Google over the same issue in 2020, with respect to consumer payments bypassing Google's Android operating system. That trial ended in Epic's favor, with Google currently pursuing an appeal. Recommended Reading Apple opens up payments under EU pressure Sign in to access your portfolio
Japan Today
01-05-2025
- Business
- Japan Today
U.S. judge says Apple defied order in App Store case
A federal judge says Apple has 'sought to interfere with competition' at its App Store to keep raking in billions of dollars from commissions charged at the shop for digital content A U.S. judge on Wednesday accused Apple of defying an order to loosen its grip on the App Store payment system to the point that criminal charges could be warranted. U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers found that Apple "willfully" violated an injunction she issued at trial, with the company instead creating new barriers to competition with the App Store and even lying to the court in the process. "That it thought this court would tolerate such insubordination was a gross miscalculation," Gonzalez Rogers said in an order allowing Epic Games to enforce the injunction against Apple. "As always, the cover-up made it worse. For this court, there is no second bite at the apple." Fortnite-maker Epic launched the case in 2021 aiming to break Apple's grip on the App Store, accusing the iPhone maker of acting like a monopoly in its shop for digital goods or services. After a trial, Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Apple's control of the App Store did not amount to a monopoly, but that it must let developers include links to other online venues for buying content or services. The judge also found at the time that the 30 percent commission Apple charges on App Store sales allowed it "supracompetitive operating margins" that were anticompetitive, according to the injunction. Apple's response to the trial order included charging a commission on purchases made linking out of its app store, according to the judge. Apple also imposed new barriers and new requirements including "scare screens" to dissuade people from buying digital purchases outside of its App Store, the judge concluded. "In the end, Apple sought to maintain a revenue stream worth billions in direct defiance of this court's injunction," Gonzalez Rogers said in the ruling. "In stark contrast to Apple's initial in-court testimony, contemporaneous business documents reveal that Apple knew exactly what it was doing and at every turn chose the most anticompetitive option." Apple did not respond to requests for comment. "Apple's 15-30 percent junk fees are now just as dead here in the United States of America as they are in Europe under the Digital Markets Act," Epic Games chief executive Tim Sweeney said in a post on X. Sweeney's post included a "peace proposal" promising to drop current and future litigation on the matter if Apple extends the court's "Apple-tax-free framework" worldwide. The judge called on the U.S. Attorney's office to investigate whether punitive criminal contempt sanctions against Apple are warranted "to punish past misconduct and deter future noncompliance." © 2025 AFP
eNCA
01-05-2025
- Business
- eNCA
US judge says Apple defied order in App Store case
WASHINGTON - A US judge on Wednesday accused Apple of defying an order to loosen its grip on the App Store payment system to the point that criminal charges could be warranted. US District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers found that Apple "willfully" violated an injunction she issued at trial, with the company instead creating new barriers to competition with the App Store and even lying to the court in the process. "That it thought this court would tolerate such insubordination was a gross miscalculation," Gonzalez Rogers said in an order allowing Epic Games to enforce the injunction against Apple. "As always, the cover-up made it worse. For this court, there is no second bite at the apple." Fortnite-maker Epic launched the case in 2021 aiming to break Apple's grip on the App Store, accusing the iPhone maker of acting like a monopoly in its shop for digital goods or services. After a trial, Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Apple's control of the App Store did not amount to a monopoly, but that it must let developers include links to other online venues for buying content or services. The judge also found at the time that the 30 percent commission Apple charges on App Store sales allowed it "supracompetitive operating margins" that were anticompetitive, according to the injunction. Apple's response to the trial order included charging a commission on purchases made linking out of its app store, according to the judge. Apple also imposed new barriers and new requirements including "scare screens" to dissuade people from buying digital purchases outside of its App Store, the judge concluded. "In the end, Apple sought to maintain a revenue stream worth billions in direct defiance of this court's injunction," Gonzalez Rogers said in the ruling. "In stark contrast to Apple's initial in-court testimony, contemporaneous business documents reveal that Apple knew exactly what it was doing and at every turn chose the most anticompetitive option." An Apple spokesperson told AFP it strongly disagrees with the judge's decision and will appeal to a higher court, but plans to comply. "Apple's 15-30 percent junk fees are now just as dead here in the United States of America as they are in Europe under the Digital Markets Act," Epic Games chief executive Tim Sweeney said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. Sweeney's post included a "peace proposal" promising to drop current and future litigation on the matter if Apple extends the court's "Apple-tax-free framework" worldwide. The judge called on the US Attorney's office to investigate whether punitive criminal contempt sanctions against Apple are warranted "to punish past misconduct and deter future noncompliance."
Business Mayor
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Mayor
Epic says Fortnite is coming back to iOS in the US
Following a court order that blocks Apple from taking a commission on purchases made outside the App Store, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney says on X that the company plans to bring Fortnite back to iOS in the US 'next week.' The app hasn't been available on iOS in the US since August 2020, when Apple kicked it off the App Store for implementing Epic's own in-app payment system in violation of Apple's rules. Since then, Apple and Epic have been embroiled in an ongoing legal battle, including a ruling more in Apple's favor in 2021 and today's ruling that is a major victory for Epic. Sweeney also offered a 'peace proposal' from Epic to Apple in his post on X. 'If Apple extends the court's friction-free, Apple-tax-free framework worldwide, we'll return Fortnite to the App Store worldwide and drop current and future litigation on the topic.' Apple didn't immediately reply to a request for comment. READ SOURCE
The Journal
01-05-2025
- Business
- The Journal
Apple in legal battle with maker of popular game Fortnite
A US FEDERAL JUDGE has said Apple wilfully violated an injunction in a competition case brought by Fortnite maker Epic Games. US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers had previously ordered Apple to stop prohibiting app developers from linking customers to their own purchasing mechanisms, and not require them to go through Apple's payment systems. But in a judgment yesterday, she said she was referring the matter to a district attorney in California to investigate whether criminal contempt proceedings are appropriate, accusing the tech giant of effectively ignoring the initial ruling. The judge found Apple violated a 2021 injunction which, she wrote, sought to 'restrain and prohibit the iPhone maker's anticompetitive conduct' and pricing. 'Apple's continued attempts to interfere with competition will not be tolerated,' she wrote in Wednesday's ruling, which held Apple in contempt. Advertisement The judge ordered that Apple 'no longer impede developers' ability to communicate with users nor will they levy or impose a new commission on off-app purchases'. She also accused Apple's vice-president of finance Alex Roman of 'outright' lying under oath. The case links back to a lawsuit filed by Epic Games in 2020, which accused Apple of building an illegal monopoly via its App Store by forcing app developers to use Apple's own payment system, and taking up to 30% commission on transactions made through that system, making billions of dollars in the process. The monopoly claims were rejected, but Apple was ordered to lower the barriers around payments, and allow developers to show consumers links to alternative ways of making purchases. In a post on social media, Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney welcomed the ruling and offered Apple a 'peace' deal on the subject. 'Epic puts forth a peace proposal: If Apple extends the court's friction-free, Apple-tax-free framework worldwide, we'll return Fortnite to the App Store worldwide and drop current and future litigation on the topic,' he said. 'Apple's 15-30% junk fees are now just as dead here in the United States of America as they are in Europe under the Digital Markets Act. Unlawful here, unlawful there,' Mr Sweeney added.
