After It Willfully Violated Court Order in Epic v. Apple, Judge Comes Down Hard on Apple

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled today that Apple willfully violated her court order in Epic v. Apple and lied to her repeatedly about its crimes. She is referring the matter to U.S. attorneys to investigate Apple and its vice president of finance on criminal contempt charges.

“The Court finds Apple in willful violation of this Court’s 2021 Injunction which issued to restrain and prohibit Apple’s anticompetitive conduct and anticompetitive pricing,” the judge’s 80-page filing reads. “Apple’s continued attempts to interfere with competition will not be tolerated.”

As I’m sure you know, Epic Games instigated antitrust battles with Apple and Google to force them to halt their unfair mobile app store fees and policies and other unlawful behavior. Epic beat Google handily, but it was issued a mixed ruling in its case with Apple. Nonetheless, Apple fought that verdict tooth and nail and it engaged in the same duplicitous and underhanded faux compliance that it has tried (and is failing with) in the EU. In February, Apple’s Phil Schiller admitted in a hearing that Apple’s plan to meet the needs of the judge’s ruling–a 27 percent in-app fee structure to replace the normal 30 percent fees–violated that court order.

And today the judge confirmed it.

“Apple’s response to the Injunction strains credulity,” she writes. “After two sets of evidentiary hearings, the truth emerged. Apple, despite knowing its obligations thereunder, thwarted the Injunction’s goals, and continued its anticompetitive conduct solely to maintain its revenue stream.” (This is exactly what it’s done in the EU as well.)

“In stark contrast to Apple’s initial in-court testimony, contemporaneous business documents reveal that Apple knew exactly what it was doing and at every turn chose the most anticompetitive option,” she continues. “To hide the truth, Vice-President of Finance, Alex Roman, outright lied under oath … The Court refers the matter to the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California to investigate whether criminal contempt proceedings are appropriate.”

“This is an injunction, not a negotiation,” the filing goes on. “The Court will not tolerate further delays. As previously ordered, Apple will not impede competition. The Court enjoins Apple from implementing its new anticompetitive acts to avoid compliance with the Injunction. Effective immediately Apple will no longer impede developers’ ability to communicate with users nor will they levy or impose a new commission on off-app purchases.”

And there is so much more.

The judge permanently restrained Apple, its officers, agents, servants, employees, and anyone else associated with that company from imposing any fee on any purchase that customers make outside apps.

Apple will no longer be allowed to “audit, monitor, track or require developers to report purchases or any other activity that consumers make outside an app.”

Apple cannot restrict the language, style, format, quantity, flow, or placements of links for purchases outside in app.

Apple cannot impact the UI developers wishes to use for these links. It can’t exclude certain categories of apps from these requirements, this now impacts all apps. And it cannot interfere with customers that wish to proceed through or outside an app for purchases or any other reason.

In short, the judge has done to Apple what I’ve been warning Big Tech for years. They could have found some middle ground and gotten most of what they wanted. But by fighting, lying, and being belligerent, that’s all been taken away from Apple. Now, the requirements of this injunction are dramatically more severe than would have been the case had Apple just done the right thing.

“The INJUNCTION IS EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY,” the order notes. “The Court will not entertain a request for a stay given the repeated delays and severity of the conduct.”

Bravo. I mean, f$%&ing A. It’s about time.