A California court ruled that Apple violated state competition laws by prohibiting app developers from using alternative in-app payment methods other than their own, which included a 30% commission.
The decision may clear the way for cryptocurrency and non-fungible token (NFT) projects to add more functionality to their iOS apps.
April 24th decision was made by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in the case of Apple vs Epic Games, the creator of the video game Fortnite.
The court upheld a lower court's 2021 decision, explaining that the disposition against Apple's management hurt Epic.
The anti-direction provision is an Apple policy that states that iOS developers may not communicate payment methods outside of the app through certain mechanisms, such as in-app links.
The policy increased the costs of apps from Epic subsidiaries that are still on Apple's App Store and prevented other app users from becoming potential consumers of Epic Games, the court explained.
Tim Sweeney, the founder and CEO of Epic Games, tweeted on April 24 that the ruling "frees iOS developers" by allowing them to direct consumers to alternative payment solutions.
Fortunately, the court's positive decision rejecting the provisions against Apple's management frees up iOS developers to send consumers to the web to do business with them directly there. We are working on the next steps.
โTim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) April 24, 2023
While the court found in Apple's favor on most of the issues, the tech giant failed in its argument that the anti-management provisions should not apply to Epic Games because it terminated Epic Games' iOS developer account in August 2020.
The court ruled that Epic Games would have earned additional revenue since then, except for Apple's policy, by applying the competitor's "connection test" and the consumer's "balance test" and found that the provision against management was "unfair". according to both tests.
The court explained Apple's anti-direction violation from a second angle by ruling that consumers would have flocked to Epic Games directly if they had learned of its much lower commission rate of 12%, compared to 30% for Manzana.
โIf consumers can learn about the lower prices of apps, which are made possible by lower developer costs, and have the ability to substitute the platform with those lower prices, they will do so, increasing the revenue Epic generates. Games Storeโ.
If Apple does not appeal the ruling, it could set a case law precedent that benefits non-fungible, crypto token app creators because they will not be subject to Apple's 30% "tax."
Related: Robinhood Wallet launches on iOS with Android support to follow
The Uniswap decentralized exchange is one of the latest crypto projects to reach the App Store although Apple initially withheld its release in March.
Almost two months ago, the European Union sets new antitrust rules which require Apple to allow third-party app stores on their devices, which in turn allows consumers to bypass Apple's 30% commissions.
However, in December, Apple interfered with NFT transactions sent to Coinbase's self-custody wallet claiming that it is entitled to "collect 30% of the gas fee" via in-app purchases.
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