With potential millions of dollars in potential profits and some oversight on the App Store in the balance, Apple has filed for an appeal of the decision in its most important case against Epic. However, Apple prevailed in the case (the company went as that they called the decision to be a resounding win with Judge Gonzalez Rogers ruling in favour of Apple in nine of the ten lawsuits Epic filed against it, but it did lose one key manner: Judge Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Apple had violated the anti-steering regulations of California and demanded that Apple allow developers to connect to other payment systems. This policy was supposed to take into consideration at the end of December however it could be delayed until after the time frame and that’s what’s at stake.
In the course this appeal Apple has asked for an extension of time to keep it from being forced to implement new anti-steering regulations, saying that it “will let Apple to safeguard consumers and secure its platform as the company tackles the complex and fast-changing technological, legal and economic challenges.” The company’s arguments are quite interesting if we’re taking the right information from the document.
For example, Apple claims that the new rule against steering is not needed since the company has already made a decision to eliminate the section in question from their App Store Policies in Cameron V. Applesettlement, but this is a surprise to us: at the time, Apple only agreed to “clarify” that app developers could contact customers with consent, but not connect to payment systems. This clarification was widely viewed by app developers as an untruth. In the moment, Apple didn’t say anything regarding removing a portion of the App Store Guidelines completely.
