Judge ordered Cupertino to stop steering users to its payments platform and Apple wants that paused, then erased
Apple has appealed one of its disputes against Epic Games, despite having mostly won the case. The iGiant’s legal stoush with Epic concerned the games developer’s decision to sell virtual goods directly from within its smash hit game Fortnite, and to do so at a discount compared to prices offered in Apple’s App Store. Epic did so, in part, to point out that Apple’s 30 per cent cut of in-app purchases inflates the prices of apps and digital goods. Apple responded by booting Fortnite from the App Store and cancelling Epic’s developer account. The dispute went to court and Apple mostly won – US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers found Apple is not a monopolist and found in favour of the fruity company on nine of ten counts. But Epic Games won on one count that concerns California’s «anti-steering» laws – statutes that bar limiting choice of service providers. To understand steering, consider the rules around making a car insurance claim in California. Insurance companies like to «steer» policy holders to repairers they know can do the job at a low price, which saves insurers money. California law believes that «steering» robs consumers of choice, therefore it allows policy holders to pick their preferred repairer regardless of an insurer’s preference.
