News: U.S. Federal Judge and Epic Games Contest Whether Apple is Compliant with an Order allowing Payment Steering
A hearing on the evidence of the Epic Games v. Apple trial is examining the question of whether Apple has truly complied with U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers' order to allow app developers to "steer" users towards third-party payment methods outside of the app's native App Store.
The evidentiary hearing regarding Apple's compliance with the law began on Wednesday, May 8. AP is reporting the judge Gonzalez Rogers " questioned whether Apple is putting up a gauntlet of exasperating obstacles in order to prevent from using other payments in iPhone applications," regardless of the court's directive.
Hearing Focused on Whether Apple Policy Doesn't Change.
The AP article further explains that Judge Gonzalez Rogers' tone suggested the Apple's approach has been primarily focused on protecting Apple's own profits rather than ensuring that it is in line with the intended outcome of her decision to allow the steering of customers and to increase iPhone users' capability move easily between different in-app payment options. The article points out that according to Epic document, Apple is still blocking the developers from directing consumers towards other payment methods with lower pricing alternatives.
The AP report continues to say that, in the course of the hearing Apple chief executive of the iPhone App Store, Matthew Fischer explained that Apple has received approval for applications to use 38 apps that show the links to different payment systems, "a fraction of the approximately 2 million iPhone applications available in the U.S."
PC Mag points out that this low application number 38 of the 65,000 app developers that offer in-app purchases -it is most likely due to the cost, since the 27% Apple fee and the additional cost of credit card charges would likely result in a more expensive overall price for app developers.
Apple Executive 'Unaware' of the higher overall cost issue
The LAW360 article that ran on Friday, May 10 describes the proceedings when Epic lawyer Yonatan Even as well as the judge Gonzalez Rogers questioned Apple Finance Vice President Alex Roman. Even pointed out the lower cost of 3% of Apple -- which is 27% for transactions taking place outside an app for Apple devices, as opposed to its usual in-app 30percent fee and Epic has also presented evidence to show that the average cost of processing payments within the U.S. is 3.5% as well as a yoga app CEO testifying that he pays 3.5 percentage to 6.5 percent fees for payment processing. Following that, Roman said he was not aware of the fact, Even reiterated that the goal was to set the fee to allow the developers to provide users with a better price by asking Roman to clarify what he thought he knew about this. The judge Gonzalez Rogers is quoted as saying to Roman that "'It sounds like you all made lots of decisions with little or no information or information,' she stated. It sounds as if the goal was to maintain ... the income that you had before.'" Access the LAW360 article here.
We are pleased to see the Judge's Side with Epic
CEO David Nachman states that "We're delighted to have the judge agree in favor of Epic in this case We're hoping we can convince the judge to order Apple to let steering be available for app and game developers without fees and unnecessary limits. The company's goal is to open up global commerce for software and digital product companies, and we're with our clients in celebrating this step towards an open and accessible commerce experience for mobile."
Additional Antitrust Case against Apple launched by US Justice Department
As well as in addition to the Epic Games case, the U.S. Justice Department launched an antitrust suit against Apple in the month of March 2024, alleging that Apple holds monopoly control over the smartphone market, including (among many others) on the subject of digital payments.