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“I don’t know how you assess all this analysis and all the grounds for competition that Apple has for its closed ecosystem, when the judge said, ‘But I’m going to force Apple to allow competitors to provide a directory in Apple’s ecosystem,'” said Paul Swanson, an antitrust. a lawyer in Denver. “I don’t see these two things going together.”
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney may agree. In a vivid tweet on Friday, Sweeney said: “Today’s decision is not a victory for developers or consumers. Epic is fighting for fair competition between in-app payment methods and app stores for billions of users. “The Verge reports that Epic plans to appeal the verdict. (Epic Games did not respond to a request for comment.) Fortnite will not return to iOS until “Epic can offer in-app payments in fair competition with Apple payments, passing on savings to consumers,” Sweeney wrote on Twitter.
The gaming industry and antitrust experts say the decision is effective, but not surprising. “It was a very difficult battle for Epic to win the case,” said Florian Ederer, an associate professor of economics at the Yale School of Management. At the same time, he says, the decision was preceded by growing international scrutiny of Apple’s anti-steering regulations. In August, South Korean regulators approved a bill forcing Apple and Google, defendants in another Epic-led case, to allow payment systems other than their own. Days later, the Japan Fair Trade Commission closed its investigation in Apple’s App Store, stating that Apple should allow so-called reading apps – which include Netflix, Spotify and Amazon Kindle, for example – to encourage users to register and potentially make payments through these companies’ own websites. However, Rodgers’ decision could have a much greater financial impact, as she notes that most of the payments in the App Store come from gaming applications.
Within 90 days, App Store developers will be able to bypass the 30 percent commission by adding in-app buttons or links to their own websites with their own payment systems. “Developers will not receive everything from that – they will not completely bypass this 30 percent, “says Ederer. “But it’s a big win for developers.” He theorizes that any more cash surplus can act as an incentive for developers to help send more products or keep them longer, even if some users choose to take the easy route and go through the payment system in Apple app.
More payment systems can bring confusion, the stated enemy of the Apple-obsessed company. “In the long run, with the lack of a vertically integrated platform, you will have many different payment providers trying to grow your business,” said Jost van Dreunen, a professor at the University of New York, a professor and author of One Up, a book on world business with games. “They will all fight on the margin. There will be an increasing number of transactions and payment processors trying to get a piece. “This can confuse consumers accustomed to“ click and go ”or“ drag here, done. ”And with new payment processing systems, consumers may feel less transparent and confident in an already opaque, complex digital marketplace.
While Epic Games has won a major battle on the ground, Apple may have won its morale: Apple may argue that consumers are not trapped in their iOS ecosystem as much as they inhabit it. “Today, the Court confirmed what we know all along: The App Store does not violate antitrust laws,” an Apple spokesman said in a statement. “Apple faces stiff competition in every segment of our business, and we believe that customers and developers choose us because our products and services are the best in the world.”
The solution is another crack in Apple’s garden with walls. “It’s starting to show some wear and tear,” says van Dreunen. “It’s not a virgin, impenetrable organization that you thought it would be.” And if today’s decision is indeed appealed, its struggle is not over.
Additional report by Gilad Edelman.
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