A federal appeals court has reopened the door for Apple to collect commissions on outside payments again, but the company won't see any money until Epic signs off on it.
In April, Judge Gonzalez Rogers found Apple in violation of a 2021 injunction that required the company to remove anti-steering barriers for third-party payments. As a result, the company was no longer allowed to charge any commission, not just its previous 27%.
On Thursday, a court upheld the spirit of the law, saying that Apple had, in fact, violated the anti-steering injunction with its steep commission fees. But it also partially sided with Apple, claiming that the ban on all commissions went too far.
"Despite Apple's arguments to the contrary, most of the restrictions imposed by the district court align with the Injunction, although they are overbroad in some respects," the court documents read. "However, the commission prohibition is not an appropriately cabined civil contempt sanction."
"Accordingly, the April 30 Order is reversed in relevant part and remanded to the district court. We otherwise affirm the April 30 Order."
But that doesn't mean Apple's in the clear yet, either. The court now wants Apple and Epic to sit down and agree on a reasonable rate — or have the court do it for them.
Until then, Apple is still left earning no commission from any sales that Epic — or any other third-party payment system — makes.
There was one other notable change ruled in Apple's favor. Apple may now "restrict the developer from placing its buttons, links, or other calls to action in more prominent fonts, larger sizes, larger quantities, and more prominent places than Apple uses for its own buttons, links, or other calls to action."
Essentially, after Apple was found in violation of requiring "plain buttons" — which were often easy to miss as they were, effectively, text links. This decision strikes a middle ground between allowing developers to use buttons, provided that they don't out-compete Apple's own.
