Apple violated the court’s 2021 injunction, provided to restrain and hinder anticompetitive conduct and pricing.
Now, Apple can not have control over how developers design or position links that draw users to purchase items outside the application. The United States district judge has recently passed its judgment that Apple has breached a ruling in its antitrust legal fight against Epic Games. As a result, crypto app developers can now direct users to payment outside of Apple’s ecosystem without any limitations or heavy fees.
On April 30, US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that the court had found Apple violating the court’s 2021 injunction, provided to restrain and hinder anticompetitive conduct and pricing. Apple tried to get in the way of the competition, and it will not be tolerated at all.
The judge also mentioned that the ruling is effective immediately, and Apple will lose its capability of impeding developers and communicating with users. Also, it can not charge commission on off-app purchases. He also clarified that this is a ruling and not a negotiation. It was previously ordered that Apple can not have control over how developers design or position links that draw users to purchase items outside the application. Apple also can’t keep out some categories of apps and developers from having link access. After this order, a lot of crypto members noticed that the guidelines were updated, and clearly they were not liking the ruling.
Industry Reaction to The Update
The chief executive officer and co-founder of Appfigures mentioned that people may confuse Apple’s passive-aggressive language. The CEO further elaborated on the update, mentioning that apps can now link to an external non-fungible token (NFT) collection. Also, they can link outside the application store or to an external payment system without any permission. Yesterday, a crypto commentator, Xero, also posted on X, mentioning that this is largely bullish for mobile crypto games and apps.
On May 2, the CEO of Instasize also posted on X, mentioning that, “Apple just updated the App Store rules. You can now add buttons, external links, and CTA without needing special entitlements.”