If developers are no longer forced to use Apple's payment system - and can avoid the 30% commission - they could lower their prices. When Epic violated Apple's rules and allowed people to buy credits for Fortnite through its own system, it offered a 30% discount, since there was no Apple levy involved. So will this make apps and in-app items cheaper? That's prohibited under California competition laws.
Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Apple was hiding information from consumers and limiting choice. It means that when you pay for, say, a Spotify subscription on your iPhone, or a cool new outfit for your avatar in the mobile version of Roblox, you could get the option to pay through Spotify or Roblox's own systems.Īpple long has banned app developers from offering these alternative payment methods. But what does this mean for people who buy apps for their iPhones and iPads? 'It will improve competition on the edges, but it's not the fundamental change that Epic and advocates of the antitrust case would have hoped for.' 'It's a split decision,' said Mark Lemley, a Stanford Law School professor who studies antitrust issues and technology. She also said Apple does not have an illegal monopoly over how developers can process payments for mobile games, which Apple applauded.
For Apple, Gonzalez Rogers upheld the App Store's overall structure as legal, a major victory for the tech giant.
