Apple loses its appeal of a scathing contempt ruling in iOS payments case



Back in April, District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers delivered a scathing judgment finding that Apple was in “willful violation” of her 2021 injunction intended to open up iOS App Store payments. That contempt of court finding has now been almost entirely upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, a development that Epic Games’ Tim Sweeney tells Ars he hopes will “do a lot of good for developers and start to really change the App Store situation worldwide, I think.”

The ruling, signed by a panel of three appellate court judges, affirmed that Apple’s initial attempts to charge a 27 percent fee to iOS developers using outside payment options “had a prohibitive effect, in violation of the injunction.” Similarly, Apple’s restrictions on how those outside links had to be designed were overly broad; the appeals court suggests that Apple can only ensure that internal and external payment options are presented in a similar fashion.

The appeals court also agreed that Apple acted in “bad faith” by refusing to comply with the injunction, rejecting viable, compliant alternatives in internal discussions. And the appeals court was also not convinced by Apple’s process-focused arguments, saying the district court properly evaluated materials Apple argued were protected by attorney-client privilege.

While the district court barred Apple from charging any fees for payments made outside of its App Store, the appeals court now suggests that Apple should still be able to charge a “reasonable fee” based on its “actual costs to ensure user security and privacy.” It will be up to Apple and the district court to determine what that kind of “reasonable fee” should look like going forward.

Speaking to reporters Thursday night, though, Epic founder and CEO Tim Sweeney said he believes those should be “super super minor fees,” on the order of “tens or hundreds of dollars” every time an iOS app update goes through Apple for review. That should be more than enough to compensate the employees reviewing the apps to make sure outside 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.



Source link

  • Related Posts

    An AI coding bot took down Amazon Web Services

    “In both instances, this was user error, not AI error,” Amazon said, adding that it had not seen evidence that mistakes were more common with AI tools. The company said…

    Metadata Exposes Authors of ICE’s ‘Mega’ Detention Center Plans

    A PDF that Department of Homeland Security officials provided to New Hampshire governor Kelly Ayotte’s office about a new effort to build “mega” detention and processing centers across the United…

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    You Missed

    Iran students stage first large anti-government protests since deadly crackdown

    Iran students stage first large anti-government protests since deadly crackdown

    Gordie Howe bridge opponent donated $1 million to MAGA fund days before Donald Trump's threat to prevent its opening

    Gordie Howe bridge opponent donated $1 million to MAGA fund days before Donald Trump's threat to prevent its opening

    Best Mark Ruffalo Movies of All Time Ranked

    Best Mark Ruffalo Movies of All Time Ranked

    Senate G.O.P. Faces Pressure to Force ‘Talking Filibuster’ for Voter I.D. Bill

    An AI coding bot took down Amazon Web Services

    An AI coding bot took down Amazon Web Services

    Avowed was always great, but now that it costs what it should have at launch and nobody’s being weird about it online, it’s kinda perfect

    Avowed was always great, but now that it costs what it should have at launch and nobody’s being weird about it online, it’s kinda perfect