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It's the News: U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Appeals From Apple and Epic In Antitrust Case -

Jan 28, 2024

The 16th of January, on the 16th day of January, the U.S. Supreme Court denied requests to hear appeals from both Apple and Epic Games regarding the antitrust lawsuit Epic has filed against Apple in the year 2020. Reuters reported.

It was 2021. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers denied the bulk of Epic's arguments in opposition to Apple but she did rule against Epic's policies against developers who would remove users from Apple's networks to make digital purchases. Then in 2023, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco agreed with much of Judge Rogers 2021 ruling.

What Does Apple Consider? Apple Reacts

The Associated Press reported that this removes the hold on an order, allowing developers the option of choosing other payment options. Apple was also a party to court papers on January 16th which outline the company's strategies to follow the court order, but retain the majority of their costs.

AP added that Apple's court filing indicates Apple's intention to:

  • Let developers use hyperlinks to websites that link to external websites. However, Apple charges 12%-27 percent commission for payments made via hyperlinks to other websites.
  • Alert consumers with a "scare screen" whenever they click an advertisement, which redirects the customer to a second payment option, notifying the user that Apple is not responsible to these transactions with respect to privacy or security.
  • Institute the application procedure for pre-approval that AP describes as "potentially challenging" before allowing external-pointing buttons or links to be displayed within iPhone or iPad applications, citing Apple's "effort to limit the risk of fraud, scams and miscommunication."

What's it? Epic Games is Reacting

AP stated that the report which outlines the plan "provoked assertions that Apple is acting in bad trust, and could set the scene for further disputes regarding legal matters," apparently quoting Epic Games' Chief Executive Officer Tim Sweeney's X (formerly known as Twitter) blog post where he stated that "Apple submitted a false 'compliance plan' for the injunction of the District Court."

Sweeney followed up with a listing of "glaring issues we've discovered previously," ending with " Epic will challenge Apple's shoddy compliance strategy in District Court" as in addition to the submission of an image the aforementioned "scare screens" Apple has included in the Developer Support update to the link to purchase externally.

The previous day, Sweeney had posted mixed opinions, and expressed that he was displeasured with the "shocking" decision of the Supreme Court choosing not to consider appeals in this instance was "A devastating outcome for everyone developers" but he stated his hope that " developers can begin making use of their rights as a judge of a court inform US customers about better prices when they shop online."

Other Epic Games v. Apple Case Developments

On the 17th of Jan, Reuters reported that Apple also asked that the judge on Tuesday that Epic Games pay them over $73 million in legal expenses and other expenses. Reuters reports that Apple's demand was motivated by "a lower court decision in which it was found that Epic Games did not comply with a developer agreement that it had signed in the year 2010," in which "Epic was required to bear the costs of legal, expenses, as well as additional charges that resulted from violation."

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