Latest news with #in-appPurchases
The Independent
3 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
Apple's loses bid to halt court ruling that blocks some fees from its iPhone app store
A three-judge appeals panel rejected Apple 's request to pause an April 30 order banning the company from charging a fee on in-app iPhone transactions processed outside its once-exclusive payment system in a two-page decision issued late Thursday. The setback threatens to divert billions of dollars in revenue away from Apple while it tried to overturn the order reining in its commissions from e-commerce within iPhone apps. Apple sought to put the order on hold after it was issued by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers in a stinging rebuke that also held the Cupertino, California, company in civil contempt of court and recommended opening a criminal investigation into whether one of its executives had committed perjury while testifying in her Oakland, California, courtroom. It marked another twist of the screw in a legal battle initiated nearly five years ago by video game maker Epic Games, which alleged Apple had turned the iPhone's app store had been turned into a price-gouging monopoly. The antitrust case focused largely on the 15% to 30% commissions that Apple rakes in from a portion of the commerce conducted within iPhone apps under a system that prohibited app makers from offering alternative payment methods. Apple is still seeking to overturn Gonzalez-Rogers' ruling in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, but her order blocking Apple's commissions on some in-app commerce will remain in effect while potentially leaving a dent in its profits. 'The long national nightmare of the Apple tax is ended,' Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney wrote in a post after the appeals court denied Apple's request. Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Although Gonzalez-Rogers mostly sided with Apple in her initial 2021 ruling in the case, she ordered the company to begin allowing apps to include links to alternative payment systems — a decision that withstood appeals that went all the way to the Supreme Court in 2024. Apple then complied by requiring commissions of 12% to 27%, provoking Epic to ask Gonzalez-Rogers to hold Apple in contempt of her order. After holding a new round of hearings that unfolded over a nine-month period straddling last year and this year, Gonzalez-Rogers brought down another legal hammer on Apple.
CNET
06-05-2025
- Business
- CNET
Developers Sue Apple For Failing To Comply With In-App Payments Order
A group of app developers have filed a class action lawsuit against Apple on the heels of a court ruling against the company for violating a 2021 injunction involving mobile purchases. The class action, filed on May 2, alleges that despite the injunction, Apple continued to block app developers from pointing users to in-app purchases and subscriptions outside of the company's own ecosystem, so that it wouldn't lose out on the 30% fee it charges to developers. The class action is a latest turn in a legal saga that primarily pitted Epic Games, the publisher of Fortnite, against the world's largest tech company. A concurrent battle has been going on between Epic and Samsung and Google over access to app storefronts. The law firm Hagens Berman filed the suit and named as its primary plaintiff Pure Sweat Basketball, Inc, which has a free app for improving basketball skills. The suit says thar Apple prevented the company from linking to a subscription page from its mobile app. "As a result of Apple's misconduct, attorneys estimate that potentially more than 100,000 similarly situated app developers were prevented from selling in-app products (including subscriptions) directly to their customers, and were forced to pay Apple commissions on in-app sales that Apple was not entitled to receive," Hagens Berman said in a post about the suit. A representative for Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
