Apple has just been handed perhaps the most bullet-proof injunction ever, affecting the App Store in the United States, as a result of the ongoing dispute between Apple and Epic Games.
Apple has said it will appeal, but comply in the meantime — and the judgement explicitly spells out how to do so, with seemingly little wiggle room. There’s one small concession that app developers must conform to, but otherwise they get free reign …
The latest developments date back to this November 2021 judgement, in which the judge presiding over Epic v. Apple declared that Apple must allow developers to freely link out to alternative payment methods on the web.
Following a series of appeals, Apple finally implemented new terms in January 2024 that allowed developers to link out, but slapped a 27% commission on anything the user purchased outside of the app in a seven-day period. It also enforced specific language for the text of the link, guidelines on the visual presentation of the link (in a plain style, rather than a button), and required the app to show a full-screen modal “scare sheet” before opening the browser.
Epic argued that these terms did not fulfil the free and open requirements of the 2021 judgment, and complained to the court. The result of this was finally handed down yesterday, hence the new injunction.
The new injunction basically throws out all of the associated restrictions Apple put on the links, as well as removing any opportunity for Apple to collect commission on purchases made outside of the app. The judge used very clear language in the injunction document, presumably to prevent Apple from trying to weasel out of compliance again.
Specifically, Apple must not:
- Impose any commission or any fee on purchases that consumers make outside an app
- Restrict developers’ style, language, formatting, quantity, flow or placement of links for purchases outside an app
- Prohibiting or limiting the use of buttons or other calls to action
- Exclude certain categories of apps and developers from obtaining link access
- Interfere with consumers’ choice to proceed in or out of an app by using anything other than a neutral message apprising users that they are going to a third-party site
- Restrict a developer’s use of dynamic links that bring consumers to a specific product page in a logged-in state rather than to a statically defined page
These seven points set out opposition to basically everything Apple required developers to do as of January 2024. The only mitigation is nestled in point 5. Apple is not allowed to interfere with the link-out process other than “a neutral message apprising users that they are going to a third-party site”.
This means Apple is allowed to require a form of interstitial alert, that notifies the user that they are navigating outside of the walls of the native app. However, it is clearly not allowed to be as obstructive as the previously-enforced full-screen modal scare sheet.
In fact, the judge goes further and lays out an approved example of a substitute, a simple pop-up dialog using simple language (shown in the header image of this post).
Here’s a side-by-side of the old scare sheet and what the judge now recommends:
What’s somewhat amusing is the newly-approved alert design was actually suggested during internal Apple design meetings as one possible option. The judge says Apple ultimately landed on most anticompetitive option, the full screen takeover. As such, now, the company doesn’t get to choose.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
