After App Store court ruling: What Apple is no longer allowed to do in the USA
A court decision is turning the American App Store upside down. Meanwhile, Apple has approved a Spotify app with payment links to the web.
Purchase dialog in Spotify app: Click and buy on the web – although Apple does not want this.
(Image: Spotify)
The harsh ruling against Apple's App Store regulations, which was handed down last week in the trial between Apple and Epic Games in the United States, is causing major changes to the software store. Apple is no longer allowed to apply some of the measures it has long enforced with bans and app review investigations, causing movement in the app market. The first major providers have reacted. Spotify, for example, has now submitted and already received approval for a new US app version that redirects payments for premium subscriptions to the web without Apple receiving a commission. This is a "victory for consumers, artists, creators and authors". "After almost a decade, we will finally be allowed to freely display clear pricing information and link to purchase," said the music streaming market leader.
The list of things that Apple now has to change (or is no longer allowed to implement) is astonishingly long. The judge in charge, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, had also accused an Apple manager of lying in previous meetings. In addition, Apple violated an "anti-steering regulation" issued in 2021, which had already prohibited the company from excluding competitors at the time.
Six key new rules and prohibitions
Judge Rogers issued a total of six central orders against Apple in the so-called contempt order. For example, the company may no longer dictate to app developers in any form how links for payment on the web should look or be placed –. Developers also have a free hand when it comes to the number of links. Apple must allow links in any form of app in the future, there are no more exceptions. Apple may not charge any commission on payments outside an app (off-app payment), nor may it monitor them or require developers to provide information about them (or any other form of use outside the app).
Buttons or so-called call-to-actions may not be restricted either – Developers can implement whatever they want to link to the web, and the process of redirection is not prescribed either. Finally, Apple is not allowed to display "scare screens" for redirects to the web, but only to formulate neutrally that payment is now made outside the app ("third-party site"). Apple must also allow developers to set dynamic links to their offers. The latter makes it possible to offer different prices depending on the type of user (or their usage). Previously, Apple only allowed static pages here.
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Epic brings back "Fortnite", builds web shops
In addition to Spotify, Epic Games, which triggered the case in the first place, has also reacted to the ruling. It will soon be bringing "Fortnite" back to the App Store in the USA (including direct purchase links to the web) and wants to help developers implement the new regulations with its offers. So-called Epic Games Store webshops are planned, with which developers can use the payment infrastructure of the games company for a fee (12 percent from a turnover of one million US dollars).
Epic Games v Apple was launched back in 2020 after Apple blocked Epic Games from the App Store. The reason was web links to paid offers within "Fortnite". Epic Games then partially won in 2021 and the aforementioned anti-steering regulation was issued. Apple responded with a reduced commission on web purchases – 27 instead of 30 percent. There are said to have been internal concerns about this fee.
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