The battle to determine the commissions that app stores take from in-app transactions wages on.
Last week, a federal judge gave a harsh opinion of Apple's fees for in-app transactions. Apple quickly filed an appeal for the new decision in the case with Epic Games about Apple’s anti-competitive App Store rules. Apple largely ignored the first 2021 order to dilute its in-app sales. This is because they have taken it upon themselves to interpret it differently.
The company has also said that, while it did follow the judge's initial ruling on the case, it will be challenging the decision through an announced appeal. What is not clear is whether Apple will have success if it does so: in her latest decision, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers did not spare Apple. In her ruling, she said in part: “Apple intentionally chose to violate the Court's Injunction. It did so with the specific goal of creating additional anticompetitive obstacles to artificially support the App Store's highly profitable model.”
Apple is also not saying what its legal arguments will be or what kind of case it will make in its appeal. With the case still working its way through the courts, companies like Epic Games and Spotify, that have a big presence on iOS, have quickly started to add ways to pay for their apps that do not rely on the App Store at all. The legal battle could go on for years as Apple continues to protect this huge revenue stream and its right to tax payments for sales made from the App Store.
