Epic snub by Supreme Court in battle to escape Apple App Store payment prison Apple gets to maintain its App Store monopoly, at least for now, after the US Supreme Court rejected a bid from Epic Games to lift a court-ordered stay that would force Apple to let devs go outside the App Store for processing in-app purchases (IAPs). Epic was seeking to vacate a stay of a lower court decision in its ongoing …
The fact that Ec got kicked off the App store is icing on the cake here. I wonder if they will have to refile on the basis of standing, as they no longer have an app to be locked in to the App stores payment system. They can probably swing back with a claim against them for being booted and revisit the payments claim, but how long will that turd take to crawl along the legal plumbing?
That said, Epic are shady AF and their app store sucks. So I'm rooting against both and sincerely hope another suit sets the precedent here. Apple shouldn't have a lock on apps or payments, but giving free reign to a crapware slinger like Epic will open the floodgates of hell's sewers. Apples app store needs some work, but this would turn it into the same kind of mess that ruined Android.
The icing on the cake will be when Sweeney gets told he can’t have his own store on iOS, must abide by the rules of the App Store (including payment restrictions) but can direct users to install an independent sideloaded version of the app if they want third party payments support. The mandatory App Sandbox will easily prevent sideloading from being abused to add third party stores, and the use of the notary service would help stop that anyway,
There is no way the Supreme Court is going to compel Apple to allow developers to recommend any/all payment systems, as to do so would apply to Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft too, killing games consoles. After all, why sell a PlayStation game and pay a commission when you can release a “free” download which gets fully unlocked with an in-app payment instead?
At worst, Apple will be told in some way that 30% is too much, and to tone that down.
Similarly, someone with a massive gash in their femoral artery won't be seriously and irreparably injured by a failure to perform emergency surgery, because it's already the way things are.
I'm sure there are aspects to the case which make it not black and white, but that argument from Apple strikes me as obviously ridiculous. The reason for the lawsuit is that Epic argues that "the way things are" is harming them.
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