Appeals Court Confirms Apple Contempt in Epic Antitrust Case

Apple lost its appeal of a brutal contempt ruling against it in Epic v. Apple, though the three person judicial panel asked Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to consider allowing the abusive monopolist to collect a small commission on purchases made outside its App Store.

“Affirming the district court’s contempt findings, the panel held that the district court did not abuse its discretion by finding Apple in contempt,” the ruling reads. “Two restrictions [imposed by Apple on app developers] violated the strict letter of the injunction, and others violated the injunction’s implicit command to refrain from action designed to defeat it.”

As you may recall, Judge Rogers dropped the hammer on Apple for its willful and belligerent non-compliance with her ruling in Epic v. Apple, finding that the company lied to her repeatedly in court and never fulfilled its requirements while pretending to do so. Apple appealed, but this ruling indicates that almost every new sanction the judge imposed on the company is legal and defensible. However, it asked Judge Rogers to at least consider Apple allowing Apple a small commission on purchases outside the App Store, just not at the 27 percent level that Apple attempted to collect.

“The panel reversed and remanded in part the district court’s imposition of civil contempt sanctions,” the ruling adds. “The panel concluded that most of the six prescriptive restrictions that the district court imposed on Apple’s conduct properly restated Apple’s existing obligations under the injunction, but some parts of the restrictions were overbroad. In addition, a commission prohibition did not qualify as a civil contempt sanction in its present form. The panel modified part of the district court’s order and remanded to the district court for further modifications.”

Presumably there will be a new hearing so that Apple can argue it should be able to collect fees made on purchases outside its App Store. And then Judge Rogers will rule on what, if anything, it can collect.