iPhone makers have been found to be violating an injunction aimed at improving competition among developers in a case currently under the brink of federal prosecutors.
Tech Giant Apple violated a US court order requiring that it modify App Store rules to allow greater competition between developers, and a federal judge in California, who now ruled on April 30, has now been referred to federal prosecutors.
“Apple deliberately chose not to comply with this court’s injunction,” writes Gonzalez Rogers. “We did so with the express intention of creating a new anti-competitive barrier that would maintain a design and effectively valuable revenue stream. A revenue stream that previously proved to be anti-competitive. This court considered such disobedience a serious miscalculation… in this court there was no second bite on an apple.”
The judge added that the court would not tolerate any further delays from high-tech companies.
She introduced Apple and its Vice President of Treasury, Alex Roman, to US lawyers for Patrick D. Robbins of the Northern California district, and conducted a criminally contemptious investigation into their actions in the case.
Roman provided testimony about the measures Apple took to comply with the Gonzalez Rogers’ injunction.
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The Epoch Times reached out to Rome for comments, but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
“The court has not taken a position on whether criminal prosecution is guaranteed,” wrote Gonzalez Rogers. “The decision is entirely about US lawyers. In addition to penalties to stop future misconduct, it also determines whether Apple should be deprived of the outcome of the violation.”
In a statement, Apple said: “We strongly oppose this decision. We will comply with the court’s order and appeal.”
The ruling by Gonzalez Rogers was issued as part of an ongoing legal dispute between Apple and Epic Games, the developers of the popular video game Fortnite.
Apple typically reduces the 30% reduction in in-app purchase fees. Epic Games has denounced the stifling competition by requiring Apple to acquire apps via the AppStore and use its own system to purchase digital content within the app.
Epic Games denounced Apple for a stifling competition by requiring Apple to get apps through the App Store, using a payment system for in-app purchases. Epic Games also accused Apple of being an overcharge committee for in-app purchases.
Apple did not convince the Supreme Court to overthrow the injunction last year.
On August 14th, 2020, someone logged in to Epic Games Fortnite on a Los Angeles smartphone. Chris Delmas/AFP via Getty Images
Epic Games also began displaying messages that Apple didn’t warn customers of the potential dangers of external links, blocking non-Apple payments and calling the new system “unusable commercially.”
Apple has denied fraud. In a court application on March 7, the company told Gonzalez Rogers it had taken on “a wide-ranging effort” to comply with the injunction “to maintain the basic characteristics of Apple’s business model and protect consumers.”
As part of the April 30 ruling, Gonzalez Rogers banned Apple from its ability to interfere with its ability to communicate with users, and said the company should not charge any fees or fees for out-of-app purchases.
She also said the company cannot restrict link placement for developer style, language formatting, or non-app purchases, nor “interfering with the choice of consumers coming and going to the app beyond neutral messages that provide users who go to third-party sites.”
Gonzalez Rogers said Apple cannot ask her to suspend her ruling “given the delays and harshness of the repeated actions.”
Sweeney also proposed what he described as a “proposition of peace.”
“If Apple extends Apple’s frictionless, Apple-Tax-free framework around the world, we’ll bring Fortnite back to App Stores around the world and remove current and future lawsuits on the topic,” he said.
The Epoch Times reached out to Apple for further comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
Reuters contributed to this report.
