{"id":641342,"date":"2023-04-25T10:05:56","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T15:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/25\/apples-app-store-can-stay-closed-but-developers-can-link-to-outside-payments-says-appeals-court\/"},"modified":"2023-04-25T10:05:56","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T15:05:56","slug":"apples-app-store-can-stay-closed-but-developers-can-link-to-outside-payments-says-appeals-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/25\/apples-app-store-can-stay-closed-but-developers-can-link-to-outside-payments-says-appeals-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple\u2019s App Store can stay closed, but developers can link to outside payments, says appeals court"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An appeals court has upheld the status quo in Epic\u2019s antitrust lawsuit against Apple, affirming a decision that was largely a victory for Apple. In a ruling delivered on Monday<\/a>, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found that Apple\u2019s closed App Store and security restrictions didn\u2019t violate antitrust law but that Apple couldn\u2019t maintain anti-steering rules that prevent users from learning about alternate payment options.<\/p>\n

Apple spokesperson Marni Goldberg provided The Verge<\/em> with the following statement:<\/p>\n

\n
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Today\u2019s decision reaffirms Apple\u2019s resounding victory in this case, with nine of 10 claims having been decided in Apple\u2019s favor. For the second time in two years, a federal court has ruled that Apple abides by antitrust laws at the state and federal levels. <\/p>\n

The App Store continues to promote competition, drive innovation, and expand opportunity, and we\u2019re proud of its profound contributions to both users and developers around the world. We respectfully disagree with the court\u2019s ruling on the one remaining claim under state law and are considering further review.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney shared a response to the ruling in a thread on Twitter<\/a>, noting that while \u201cApple prevailed at the 9th Circuit Court,\u201d the court\u2019s decision to reject Apple\u2019s anti-steering policies \u201cfrees iOS developers to send consumers to the web to do business with them directly there\u201d \u201cWe\u2019re working on the next steps,\u201d Sweeney adds.<\/p>\n

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The legal saga all started in 2020 when Apple kicked Fortnite<\/em> off of the App Store after the app began letting users<\/a> make in-app purchases using Epic\u2019s own payment processor<\/a>. This allowed Epic to avoid the up to 30 percent commission that comes with using Apple\u2019s own in-app payment system. Epic Games sued Apple<\/a> shortly after Fortnite<\/em> was removed from the App Store, alleging the company engaged in \u201cunfair and anti-competitive actions.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers handed down her ruling<\/a> in 2021, stating Apple doesn\u2019t have a monopoly on the mobile app market. She instead ordered Epic to pay up for violating Apple\u2019s developer agreement and also told Apple to remove its anti-steering rules, which bar developers from providing information about other forms of in-app payment systems to users. Both Apple<\/a> and Epic Games<\/a> appealed the court\u2019s decision in 2021.<\/p>\n

While today\u2019s ruling states that the district court \u201cerred as a matter of law on several issues,\u201d it says those errors \u201cwere harmless.\u201d It adds that Epic also failed to establish \u201cits proposed market definition\u201d and the existence of \u201cless restrictive alternative means for Apple to accomplish the procompetitive justifications supporting iOS\u2019s walled garden ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lively and important debate about the role played in our economy and democracy by online transaction platforms with market power,\u201d the ruling states. \u201cOur job as a federal Court of Appeals, however, is not to resolve that debate \u2014 nor could we even attempt to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Apple has taken recent steps in an attempt to address mounting antitrust concerns, such as introducing a way for \u201creader\u201d apps, like Kindle<\/a>, Netflix, and Spotify to skirt Apple\u2019s in-app payment requirements by linking to their own sites. Despite this, Spotify still encountered issues when selling audiobooks on its iOS app, leading it to pull audiobook purchases from its iPhone app altogether<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Update April 24th, 4:24PM ET:<\/strong> Updated to add a statement from Tim Sweeney.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Adi Robertson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An appeals court has upheld the status quo in Epic\u2019s antitrust lawsuit against Apple, affirming a decision that was largely a victory for Apple. In a ruling delivered on Monday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found that Apple\u2019s closed App Store and security restrictions didn\u2019t violate antitrust law but that Apple couldn\u2019t maintain anti-steering<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":641343,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[270,3601,46],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-641342","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-apples","8":"category-store","9":"category-technology"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}