Epic Games v. Apple judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers just ruled that, effective immediately, Apple is no longer allowed to collect fees on purchases made outside apps and blocks the company from restricting how developers can point users to where they can make purchases outside of apps. Apple says it will appeal the order.
The ruling was issued as part of Epic Games’ ongoing legal dispute against Apple, and it’s a major victory for Epic’s arguments. Gonzalez Rogers also says that Apple “willfully” chose not to comply with her previous injunction from her original 2021 ruling. “That [Apple] thought this Court would tolerate such insubordination was a gross miscalculation,” Gonzalez Rogers says.
The judge also referred the case to the US attorney to review it for possible criminal contempt proceedings.
As part of the ruling, the judge says that Apple cannot:
- Impose “any commission or any fee on purchases that consumers make outside an app”
- Restrict developers’ style, formatting, or placement of links for purchases outside of an app
- Block or limit the “use of buttons or other calls to action”
- Interfere with consumers’ choice to leave an app with anything beyond “a neutral message apprising users that they are going to a third-party site”
Apple’s senior director of corporate communications, Olivia Dalton, sent a statement to The Verge that reads, “We strongly disagree with the decision. We will comply with the court’s order and we will appeal.”
If you cannot set up your own signed, secure and intact system outside of the one Apple controls, none of those matter. If they truly gave a shit about security they would do what Linux does and allow anyone to self host their entire software infrastructure including package repositories, or at the very least do what Android does and allow installing of other app stores (including one you can self host). Signed, secure and intact are worthless if you are forced to trust someone else’s app store and signatures.
Of course the real reason they do this is to prevent people from 1, running pirated versions of paid apps, and 2, bypassing their in app purchase commission. DRM to ensure they get their cut. Signed, secure and intact have not a damn thing to do with it.
I guess you didn’t read this part.
Because this is all good, but it is way more simple for Apple to allow us to run unsigned code than to come up with all the infrastructure so you can sign your apps without 3rd parties.