Apple managed to appeal the verdict in the Epic Games trial the day before it took effect. Yesterday, the Court of Appeal upheld Tim Cook‘s company and suspended the execution of the previous court’s decision. It is assumed that it may take about a year to review the case.
According to the Bloomberg business portal, the appeals court found that the ruling of the California District Court raises “serious questions.” Recall, according to it, from December 9, Apple had to allow developers to add links to other payment methods to applications.
Now the case of Apple and Epic Games is waiting for a new review. The Court of Appeal did not specify how long it would take. But according to Bloomberg estimates, it could take at least a year. By the way, back in September, the head of Epic Games, Tim Sweeney, stated that it could take about five years to consider all appeals in the case.
Epic Games has not yet commented on the court’s actions. Apple thanked the Court of Appeal for the delay in changing the payment rules of the App Store.
“We are constantly developing the App Store and strive to make it better for users and developers. We are concerned that changing the rules may harm the security and privacy of users […]. We thank the court for granting a delay while the appeal is being considered,” said an Apple representative.
Apple also noted that it has already partially complied with the ruling of the District Court of California. It allowed developers to request contact information from users (who, in turn, may refuse to share data). However, we note that the company did this in response to a lawsuit not from Epic Games, but from a group of American developers, which was filed in 2019.
Proceedings between Apple and Epic Games began in August 2020, after the removal of the Fortnite game from the App Store. Officially, the litigation was supposed to end in September, when a California court issued its verdict, but soon both companies filed appeals.
Also recently, it became known from court documents that Apple has developed a backup plan in case it does not reject the court’s decision. The company planned to start charging a commission on all in-app purchases, even if they are made outside the App Store.