Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers remains unconvinced of Apple’s rationale for claiming it is complying with her original order, following testimony from Apple Fellow Phil Schiller.
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers remains unconvinced of Apple’s rationale for claiming it is complying with her original order, following testimony from Apple Fellow Phil Schiller.
As part of the ongoing complaint from Epic Games questioning Apple’s compliance with the judge’s original orders, Schiller and another executive tried to explain how the company arrived at its recent 27 percent commission fee change.
They also refuted the judge’s assertion that there is “no data” that the effective commission rate for developers is, on average, lower. Apple has a number of exceptions, including ongoing subscriptions and no commission at all for free apps, that result in an overall lower fee burden.
Phil Schiller testifies
Schiller defended the fees by saying the change is a good-faith attempt to comply with the order, Bloomberg reported. He reminded the judge that the original order established that Apple had a right to charge a fee, even when developers opted-out of Apple’s own in-app payment system.
Schiller was one of the three executives, including CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri, who settled on the 27 percent fee for developers opting to use other payment processors.
