Apple hasn’t properly complied with a court order to open its App Store to allow outside payment options weeks after its bid to resist those changes hit a dead end, Epic Games told a judge.
After the US supreme court refused on 16 January to wade into a three-year feud between the maker of the popular Fortnite game and the technology giant, Apple said it would let all third-party apps sold in the US include an outside link to a developer website to process payments for in-app purchases.
Apple has followed through with that but is still asking developers to reimburse the company with a commission of up to 27% for purchases made outside the App Store.
Epic said in a filing on Tuesday that it “disputes Apple’s compliance” with previously ordered changes and said it will explain the “non-compliance” in a forthcoming filing.
Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The high court decision left in place a 2023 appeals court ruling that found Apple’s business model didn’t violate federal antitrust laws, but did flout California’s Unfair Competition Law by limiting the ability of developers to communicate about alternate payment systems that may cost less.
App Store changes
Apple has been making changes to the way the App Store operates to address developer concerns since Epic sued the company in 2020. The dispute began after Apple expelled the Fortnite game from the App Store because Epic created a workaround to paying a 30% fee on customers’ in-app purchases.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney complained about Apple’s “bad-faith ‘compliance’” in a 16 January post on the social network X.
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Meanwhile, the iPhone maker is seeking a court order that Epic reimburse it for $73-million in legal expenses for breaching their developer agreement. — Rachel Graf, with Mark Gurman, (c) 2024 Bloomberg LP