Apple has been ordered by a federal judge to allow iPhone software developers to point customers to their own websites to make in-app purchases. Previously, Apple required all these transactions to happen through its payment system. The change will prevent the iPhone-maker from collecting 15% to 30% of the revenue from transactions that go through developers’ direct payment systems.
This is the primary result of the Epic Games v. Apple lawsuit. And it’s exactly what Epic asked for in the first place.
Epic Games v. Apple is a big loss for Apple
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers handed down her ruling in the lawsuit on Friday. It wasn’t a total loss for Apple — she ruled that Apple did not violate antitrust law.
But she also ordered the huge change to the way iPhone apps handle in-app purchases. The judge wrote (in the stilted language of court rulings):
“Apple Inc. and its officers, agents, servants, employees, and any person in active concert or participation with them (“Apple”), are hereby permanently restrained and enjoined from prohibiting developers from (i) including in their apps and their metadata buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms, in addition to In-App Purchasing and (il) communicating with customers through points of contact obtained voluntarily from customers through account registration within the app.”
Rogers signaled that she might make this exact ruling back in may.
Read more at CultOfMac.com