Just over three months after the conclusion of the trial, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has handed down her ruling in the Apple vs Epic Games case. Judge Rogers has issued a permanent injunction saying that Apple must allow developers to redirect App Store users to other payment systems.
The ruling from Judge Rogers comes after Apple has already announced a handful of App Store changes over the past week, including allowing developers of “Reader” applications to link out to a website for account management.
The ruling reads:
[Apple is] permanently restrained and enjoined from prohibiting developers from including in their apps and their metadata buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms, in addition to In-App Purchasing and (ii) communicating with customers through points of contact obtained voluntarily from customers through account registration within the app.
The ruling on Apple’s anti-steering restrictions being anticompetitive is not necessarily a surprise, as this is something Judge Rogers heavily focused on during the trial. This refers to Apple’s guidelines that state developers are not allowed to “steer” customers to make digital purchases outside of the App Store. During the trial, Judge Rogers specifically referenced an anti-steering credit card case that previously made it to the United States Supreme Court.
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