A ruling was issued in a trial in which an American development company that handles the popular online game "Fort Knight" and IT giant "Apple" were fighting over application distribution and billing systems.
The court has ordered Apple to review the rules, saying there is a problem with the current system, which cannot direct users to non-Apple billing methods.
The popular online game "Fort Knight" was distributed at "Upstore" operated by Apple, but since "Epic Games", which developed the game, avoided Apple's billing system and started its own service. Apple removed the game and the two were fighting in court.
A federal district court in California said yesterday that it is not illegal for Apple to succeed in business, and it cannot be concluded that it is a monopoly company that violates the antitrust law, which is Japan's antitrust law. He pointed out and rejected the claims of Epic Games.
On the other hand, it issued an order to Apple to review the rules, saying that there is a problem with the current system that can not guide users to billing methods other than Apple.
If Apple accepts the order, it will help developers avoid paying delivery fees of up to 30%, which could impact Apple's future business model.
The court states that the order will come into effect 90 days later, if there is no objection.
Apple issued a statement about this, saying, "Today the court confirmed that we had long known that the App Store did not violate antitrust laws. This ruling is a big win for Apple. "And so on.
It is not clear whether to challenge the order to review the billing rules.
Meanwhile, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney posted on his Twitter account that "Today's decision is not a victory for developers or consumers. We will continue to fight," suggesting an appeal. ..