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Eh, Apple won 90% of this case though, and has 90 days to appeal the last 10%. Epic won basically 0% since Fortnite is still banned for their TOS breach, and wouldn't be able to take advantage of the alternative payment ruling that would take effect in 90 days if Apple doesn't appeal (and they'll probably appeal).
Except it wasn't judged that way. The judge stated "the court cannot ultimately conclude that Apple is a monopolist under either federal or state antitrust laws,” and "success is not illegal".
Epic isn't selling a Operating system and a hardware platform... where you can't install another store never mind accept payments directly.If you think of it, the same argument Epic is using, that Apple is exercising a monopoly over software that runs on their devices can be used right back at them.
Epic is exercising a form of monopoly by only making their games available in their own store/launcher and only allowing their own microtransactions on their F2P games
I think it is foolish to somehow see this as a fight for user choice. It is a downright fight for control. Who gets the control, the creator of popular devices/platforms vs. the creator of popular software?
Either outcome has problems for the consumer, just different ones.
Cause the more choices you have the lower the prices you pay. Consumers hate paying lower prices.
I'm pretty sure paying with a credit card won't get more fragmented with or without Apple/Google's payment system. It's just like visiting any website where you enter your payment information and it's done. Now minus Apple's 30% fee.
You call up your credit card company and dispute the charges. People should be aware of this.
I doubt Epic can control your device as well as Apple or Google. I'm sure Epic wants to release their own store but that's a good thing.
I don't see a problem here. When you want to run the game you just tap the icon and the game starts. It's not like Apple or Google has a convenient launcher like Steam where all your games are in one place. Both Apple and Google use confusing ass UI's that take me forever to find an app. If someone hands me their phones and I need to find an app, then it's going to take me a long time to find it. Apple users can have them in folders while Android users might have them on any of the home screens that exist. The only thing you may be doing is launching the Epic store over the Apple store to buy your game. Not a problem.
Some of that would be great but it looks like most of that will not come to pass, it looks like the only thing Apple actually has to be compliant with the ruling is to allow links that would take them out of the app to a 3'rd party site where they could complete the purchase but they don't have to allow direct payments to be made directly in-app. This is something Apple has already allowed in Europe and Asia for a month or so as Apple got ahead of the ruling in Taiwan by changing their wording in their agreements pre-emptively. There is very likely now going to be others who take their shots at apple and they will slowly pick apart their hold on the app store and its ecosystem, the judge does state that 30% seems inflated but as EPYC's argument wasn't that the rate was too high, and instead, that there was a rate at all that part was outside the scope of her ruling.
It's also a PITA, most people won't do it out of pure convenience. EPYC's own numbers showed that while they had the link available to their own payment portal even with it being $3.00 less than the in-app link something like 90% of their users chose to pay $8.99 and not $5.99 to not leave the app.
Depends on the outcome of the inevitable appeal(s). A two trillion dollar corporation has some resources to ensure the ruling doesn't come to pass.
I'm sure VISA could argue the same for real life. I mean wouldn't every transaction be more secure if they where all processed by VISA and VISA alone. No more cash no more Mastercard or high interest shady store cards. Just give everyone the same VISA cash card and let VISA skim 30% off every transaction from retailers to ship to the isle of man for safe keeping. (I am sort of jesting lol)
Visa takes 2.5% off the top before the payment processor gets their cut. Lots of middlemen in the way so from apples 30% they are probably paying out a solid 5% of that to their own payment processor. This is where Apple's attempt at becoming their own credit card company came in because they wanted to cut out that % they were having to pay. But ultimately failed to do so for a number of reasons we will likely never actually hear.
Here's the kicker most people missed today: the ruling declared Apple is still entitled to a cut of externally processed payments. So what dev is going to bother, and what user is going to go outside of the established Apple payment flow they're familiar with? It's DOA even if Apple doesn't appeal in next 90 days.
Yes, Apple won, but not 100%.
It does not address the fundamental problem of the shop and the platform gatekeeper being in the same hands. There's a conflict of interests here that needs careful watching, and a mere limiting profits is not going to cut it.
But that is a fundamental problem with all shops. You don’t get to go to Walmart and at checkout tell them your gonna Venmo them the money. Hell with Walmart the suppliers don’t even get to set their prices Walmart literally rolls up and says “we’re selling your product you need to sell it to us for X, and if you sell it less elsewhere we’ll drop you”
That grey market is fueled by people who got duped by scammers. And is a great way to get your account perma locked.
That's probably most of it, but some of it is country level pricing arbitrage.
It turns out the possibility of external payments didn't mean "pay Apple nothing". The 30% is tied to the App Store contract - agreed to when publishing an app - not the payment processing. That means Apple gets their cut no matter where payment processes.
https://twitter.com/HoegLaw/status/1436395708110737423
