Apple may be sued: the company is suspected of deliberately violating a court injunction
Kyiv • UNN
A US court has ruled that Apple deliberately violated a court injunction in a case against Epic Games regarding competition in the App Store. The case has been referred to the prosecutor's office for possible criminal proceedings.
The American company Apple has found itself at the center of a new high-profile scandal. A court in the United States ruled that the tech giant deliberately violated a previous court injunction issued in the case against Epic Games, which concerned Apple's monopolistic policies in the App Store. This was reported by BBC, reports UNN.
Details
According to the media, a court in the United States ruled that Apple deliberately violated a court injunction in the case against Epic Games, which concerned competition in the App Store. As a result, District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has referred the case to the Northern District of California Attorney's Office to consider opening a criminal investigation into contempt of court.
Apple responded to the court's decision late Wednesday.
We strongly disagree with the decision. We will comply with the court order and appeal
The ruling issued Wednesday concerns a lawsuit filed in 2021 by Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, one of the world's most popular games, which argued that customers should have access to third-party payment options.
It challenged that Apple receives a commission of up to 30% on sales, and argued that the App Store is a monopolist.
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In her 2021 ruling, Judge Gonzalez Rogers stated that Apple can no longer prohibit developers from referring to their own purchasing mechanisms.
In a contempt of court order issued Wednesday, Judge Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Apple continued to interfere with competition by making attempts that the court said were "not permissible."
Judge Gonzalez Rogers added that internal company documents she reviewed showed that Apple deliberately violated the court injunction.
The documents show that Apple knew exactly what it was doing and chose the most anti-competitive option at every step
She said CEO Tim Cook ignored repeated calls from executive Philip Schiller to force Apple to comply with the ban and allowed CFO Luca Maestri to convince him not to do so.
Cook made a bad choice
She also stated that Apple's vice president of finance, Alex Roman, "blatantly lied under oath."
The judge wrote that one example of Apple's attempts to circumvent the court injunction was the decision to charge a 27% commission for purchases outside the app, even though the company had previously not charged any commission.
She said the company also introduced new restrictions and requirements to discourage customers from using competing platforms to make purchases.
In his post on "X", Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney announced that his company will return Fortnite to the US iOS app store next week.
Epic is making a peace proposal: if Apple extends the court-ordered hassle-free and tax-free system worldwide, we will bring "Fortnite" back to the App Store worldwide and discontinue current and future litigation on the matter
In another post, Sweeney strongly criticized Apple's policies, saying that "garbage fees" of 15-30% are dead in both the US and Europe under current antitrust laws.