Court Forces Apple to Waive Fees for Payments Outside the App Store

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers on Wednesday found Apple in contempt of court and ruled that, effective immediately, Apple can no longer charge a commission on purchases made outside of its App Store.

While Apple technically won its case against Epic, it lost on the part concerning links to alternative payment methods. Epic won a reversal, and now the court not only reiterated the previous injunction, but also laid out eight precise demands on Apple:

1. Refuse commission on external purchases;
2. Stop requiring external payment reports from developers;
3. Allow free advertising of alternative payment methods within applications;
4. Allow any buttons and calls to action;
5. Remove restrictions for affiliate programs;
6. Use only approved notifications when navigating to external sites;
7. Allow developers to link to any page on the site, not just one;
8. Allow sharing of information about the selected purchase.

In turn, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney called the ruling a significant victory for developers and consumers. “It forces Apple to compete with other payment services, not block them — which is what we wanted from the beginning,” Sweeney said.