Update 4am — Apple has announced its intention to appeal the decision, but will still comply with the court's injunction. The full statement is a one-line statement: "We strongly disagree with this decision. We will comply with the court's order and will appeal." The case is still far from over, but in the meantime, we can expect big changes to the App Store, at least in the United States.
Original article, 2 a.m. — Just over a month before what was supposed to be the WWDC celebration, Apple has suffered a spectacular legal defeat that will force it to make profound changes to how developers and users use the App Store. As part of the long-running legal saga against Epic Games, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has given her verdict. It's bloody.
Perjury by an Apple vice president
And the least we can say is that the manufacturer has crossed the red line in the eyes of justice, by trying to preserve its income from in-app purchases at all costs - even if it means circumventing the rules imposed by the court.
Very concretely, Apple must immediately put an end to several App Store practices:
- No commission can be charged on purchases made outside the app, for example via a link to the developer's website. The 27% rate applied until now is deemed illegal.
- Developers must be able to freely insert links, buttons, or "calls to action" into their apps, without restrictions on style, location, or language.
- Apple can no longer impose dissuasive warning screens (so-called "scare screens") when a user clicks on an outgoing link.
- The use of dynamic links leading to a specific product page (and not a generic page) must be authorized.
- It is also forbidden to exclude certain categories of apps or developers from these new rules.
In other words, nothing would prevent an iOS game (like Fortnite) from directing players to its online store so they can buy gems, money like V-Bucks, or other virtual items. All this, without any commission to pay to Apple!
For the Apple company, this is a huge setback, given the way it has protected tooth and nail the revenue from its store since the beginning. And for good reason: it's a real annuity for the manufacturer. Well... it was, apparently, since the company needs to change all that, and immediately.
And the judge didn't hold back in denouncing the way Apple went about defending its beef during the trial. First, there's the extremely embarrassing case of Vice President of Finance Alex Roman, who simply lied under oath during the trial—and perjury is no joke in the United States.
The executive reportedly claimed that the decision to impose a 27% commission on purchases made via external links was made late, even though internal documents show that Apple had planned this strategy for a long time. "Apple knew exactly what it was doing," wrote the judge, who denounced documents "fabricated for the trial"!
The judge also accuses Apple of having concealed the existence of a strategic meeting held in June 2023, which Tim Cook personally attended. The purpose of this meeting: to determine how to comply (or not) with the 2021 court injunction. Apple only revealed this meeting to the court this year, in 2025, well after the events. Worse still, the company allegedly abused professional secrecy to refuse to hand over certain documents relating to this discussion, in violation of the transparency obligations imposed by the courts.
The judge has asked federal prosecutors to consider criminal contempt proceedings against both Alex Roman and Apple itself.
Tim Sweeney, the head of Epic Games, has announced that Fortnite—whose removal from the App Store in the summer of 2020 sparked this whole affair—will return to iOS "next week." He adds that if Apple expands the very strict, and again immediate, framework defined by the court, "we will put Fortnite back on the App Store worldwide and drop the current and future lawsuits on this matter." An olive branch that Apple would probably be wise to seize.
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