Apple has suffered a setback in the process with game developer Epic Games over its lucrative app store. An American judge ruled on Friday that Apple must lift some of the restrictions on the collection of payments from app developers through the Californian App Store. Accordingly, Apple must not prevent developers from adding links in their apps that allow customers to make payments outside of Apple's own in-app purchase system. Apple charges the game developers high commissions here. Apple shares turned into the red after the verdict and lost around 2.5 percent within minutes.
The "Fortnite" developer Epic Games had stated that Apple had created a closed system with its App Store to control the one billion iPhone users and developers. Apple had argued that the rules of the App Store had created a huge market in which users felt safe enough to buy apps from unknown developers.
Apple charges up to 30 percent when someone purchases an application or subscribes to the App Store. The dispute escalated in August 2020 when Epic Games integrated an alternative payment variant into a "Fortnite" game version in order to avoid the fee to Apple and Google. The company also staged the media victim of the tech giant, published an elaborate commercial with the catchphrase "FreeFortnite". Apple then removed the game from its app store. Epic Games responded with several lawsuits.
Apple is threatened with lawsuits in the EU regarding its strict control of its own app store. Brussels is on the verge of tightening the antitrust proceedings against the iPhone group. The Californians had recently reached an agreement with the Japanese competition regulator to give some app developers more opportunities to register on their platform.