Fortnite maker Epic Video games shouldn’t be comfortable about how Apple intends to adjust to a district court docket’s injunction that permitted app builders to direct customers to their very own web sites and cost platforms — a court docket order that got here into impact following the Supreme Court docket’s resolution to not hear the Apple antitrust case, leaving the present ruling to face. Although Apple had largely received the case, because the court docket determined it was not a monopolist, a decide dominated that app makers ought to be capable of steer their clients to the online from hyperlinks or buttons inside their apps, one thing that pressured Apple to alter its App Retailer guidelines.

However Apple’s compliance doesn’t give app makers the victory they’d hoped, because the tech large goals to nonetheless cost commissions on purchases made outdoors of apps — a choice Epic goals to problem in court docket.

In accordance with statements made by Epic Video games CEO Tim Sweeney, shared on X, Apple’s “bad-faith” compliance undermines the decide’s order that will have allowed buttons or exterior hyperlinks “along with [in-app purchases.”

The Ninth Circuit District Court had ruled on one count of out ten in favor of Epic in its decision, finding that Apple violated California’s Unfair Competition law. The decision meant Apple had to remove the “anti-steering” clause from its agreement with App Store developers. This clause for years had prevented app developers from directing their customers to other ways to pay for in-app purchases or subscriptions from inside their apps, leading to confusing screens or broken features, where customers would have to figure out on their own how to make the necessary purchases from the developer’s website.

Apple updated its App Store Guidelines following the Supreme Court’s decision but with a lot of caveats. It said that developers would still have to pay a 27% cut on purchases, instead of 30%, and developers in Apple’s Small Business Program or auto-renewing subscriptions in their second year would be reduced to 12%, instead of 15%. This 3 percentage point discount is similar to what Google is offering through its User Choice billing pilot program, which counts Spotify and Bumble among its early adopters. In Google’s case, it reduced the required commissions by 4%. But these small discounts aren’t enough to make alternative payment processing worthwhile for most developers who have to pay at least that much in payment processing fees, many have argued.

Sweeney agrees, noting in his post today, shared on X, that developers aren’t able to offer their digital items “more cheaply on the web after paying a third-party payment processor 3-6% and paying this new 27% Apple Tax.”

Apple filed a bad-faith “compliance” plan for the District Court’s injunction. It totally undermines the order allowing “buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms, in addition to IAP”.https://t.co/ofbuMwe7SH

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) January 16, 2024

In addition, he points out that Apple is strictly controlling how the new links and buttons must appear. In addition to forcing developers to apply for permission, the links can’t be in the app’s ordinary payment flow but must be in a separate section of the app, Sweeney explains. The links also open to a generic web browser session, forcing users to log in again to the developer’s website — an additional point of friction in making a non-App Store purchase. And then customers will have to initiate a search to find the item they wanted to buy, after logging in.

Apple will also “front-run competing payment processors with their own ‘scare screen’ to disadvantage them,” Sweeney says, meaning that Apple will warn users about the issues that may arise when transacting with a developer outside its App Store. For instance, users won’t be able to cancel their subscriptions within Apple’s App Store or request refunds  — they’ll have to do this through the developer’s website.

Sweeney says Epic will contest Apple’s compliance in District Court.

The developer lobbying group, Coalition for App Fairness, which also includes Epic, issued its own statement on Apple’s new App Store rules.

“Apple’s approach to ‘compliance’ with the District Court’s decision will not benefit developers and consumers. The new 27 percent commission on payments it does not process defies the intention of the District Court’s injunction and undermines competition,” said Rick VanMeter, Executive Director of the Coalition for App Fairness. “These changes do nothing to enhance consumer choice, lower prices for in-app purchases or inject competition into Apple’s walled garden. It is precisely this type of abusive, monopolistic behavior that makes it imperative for Congress to pass the Open App Markets Act,” he added.