Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Elon Musk’s X and Match Group on Wednesday joined “Fortnite” video game maker Epic Games’ protest against Apple app store payment dispute. According to the technology companies Apple has failed to honor a court-ordered injunction, verning payments in its lucrative App Store.
The technology companies Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Elon Musk’s X and Match Group, which developed some of the most popular apps in the App Store. They said Apple was in “clear violation” of the September 2021 court-ordered injunction by making it difficult to steer consumers to cheaper means to pay for digital content.
Tech companies against Apple
Apple is not living up to the court-ordered injunction against Epic Games. That’s what Meta, Microsoft, Match Group, and X told the court in an amicus brief on Wednesday.
Apple declined to comment specifically on the accusation of its app store dominance, which was contained in a filing with the Oakland, California federal court.
Referring to its January 16 statement Apple said that it had fully complied with the court-ordered injunction , which it said would protect consumers and “the integrity of Apple’s ecosystem” while ensuring that developers do not get a free ride.
Apple Fortnite lawsuit
Fortnite had filed a lawsuit against Apple in 2020, saying it violated antitrust law by requiring consumers to obtain apps through the App Store and charging developers up to 30% commissions on purchases.
The court-ordered injunction required Apple to let developers provide links and buttons to direct consumers to alternative payment options.
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers told Apple in 2021 that it could not prevent app developers from using “buttons, external links, or other calls to action” informing users of payment options outside of their apps.
But the companies that filed the brief Wednesday, all of which say they’ve been subject to Apple’s rules against steering users away from its own payment processing. Say Apple’s idea of compliance would not fix the problem. Its proposal to let developers point to an external purchase link is complex and burdensome, the companies say.
Apple app store payment dispute
Epic itself has asked the judge to enforce her original order, saying that Apple is in “blatant violation” of the injunction. But it’s notable that other large developers, like Meta and Microsoft, have decided to weigh in now and shows that Apple’s rules can impact even the largest of tech companies.
Last week, Epic demanded that Apple be held in contempt, saying new rules and a new 27% fee on developers made the links effectively useless.
In Wednesday’s filing, the technology companies said Apple’s conduct “for all practical purposes” entrenches anti-steering rules that the court found illegal, propping up Apple’s “excessive” commissions and harming consumers and developers.
“Apple’s restrictions on where and how developers can communicate with their users about their options for purchasing in-app content create significant barriers to competition and artificially inflate prices,” the filing said.
In January, the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to hear Apple’s appeal from the injunction. It also decided against hearing Epic’s appeal of lower court findings that Apple’s policies did not violate federal antitrust law.
Apple’s response
Apple has until April 3 to formally respond to Epic’s filing. The company is based in Cupertino, California, while Epic is based in Cary, North Carolina.
The case is Epic Games Inc v Apple Inc, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 20-05640.
