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Apple on Friday asked a federal appeals court to overturn a legal ruling that would require the tech giant to change strict App Store rules and allow app developers to notify customers about ways to pay for subscriptions and services outside of the App Store.
NS The September decision followed a year-long legal battle between Apple and Epic Games, the maker of the game Fortnite. Apple also asked a judge to delay the decision mandating the App Store changes until an appeal is heard.
Apple argued that changing its rules too quickly would “distort the careful balance between developers and customers provided by the App Store and irreparably harm both Apple and consumers.”
Epic declined to comment on Apple’s action on Friday.
At the center of the battle between companies is Apple’s power over its lucrative App Store. The App Store makes $20 billion a year by some estimates, and its business model requires developers who distribute their apps on iPhones to pay Apple up to 30 percent of their sales.
Describing fees and other App Store rules as unfair, Epic accused Apple of anti-competitive behavior and took the tech giant to court in May, but judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the US District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that Apple did not. have a monopoly in the mobile game market.
Still, Judge Gonzalez Rogers said Apple violated California’s laws against unfair competition by prohibiting app developers from directing their customers to payment services other than the App Store.
Under long-standing App Store rules, companies weren’t allowed to tell people who used their apps that those companies could visit their websites or other locations and pay for services. The judge gave Apple 90 days to change its rules and allow developers to advertise alternative payment methods.
On Friday, Apple asked the judge to consider his request, called a stay of injunction, on Nov. , finished. The company said this could take at least a year.
Not satisfied with the judge’s decision, Epic appealed shortly after the decision was made.
The question remains what exactly Apple will have to change if the injunction is approved. Some think developers might go so far as to offer their own competing payment methods in the App Store, but Apple said Friday it “did not agree with this broad interpretation” of the judge’s decision.
The company said that Judge Gonzalez Rogers has already done so, accepting some of its requests as follows. part of an agreement in August to allow developers using e-mail and other methods to communicate with customers about alternative payment methods.
The legal battle began in August last year when Epic tried to redirect Fortnite players to Apple’s payment methods. Apple will launch Fortnite from the App Store. Epic filed suit, and the two companies met in May at a courthouse in Oakland, California. Apple recently denied Epic’s request to reinstate its developer account and return Fortnite to the App Store.
The dispute was followed with great interest by the tech industry as Apple faced calls for anti-competitive practices and regulation around the world, from Japan and South Korea to the European Union and Congress.
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