A judge’s ruling went against Apple.
Apple can no longer force developers to give it a slice of every App Store and in-app purchase made on its devices, a federal judge ruled Friday, sending shock waves through the $100 billion mobile gaming market. The decision, seen as a threat to one of Apple’s biggest moneymakers, took a bite out of the tech giant’s share price, sending it lower by $5.10 to close the week at $148.97. In her 185-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers found that Apple “is engaging in anticompetitive conduct under California’s competition laws” when it forces developers to use Apple’s proprietary in-app purchase (IAP) payment system for initial downloads and in-app purchases. Under the disputed IAP system and Apple’s agreements with app developers, Apple collects the payments, gives 70% to the developers and keeps a 30% commission, she wrote. “Once acceptable, Apple’s commission rate is now questioned by some consumers and some developers, like Epic Games, as being overly burdensome and violative of competition laws,” she wrote.
