JAKARTA – Apple Inc on Wednesday, December 8, won a reprieve that required making sweeping changes to the App Store, which had been in their favor, when it appealed an antitrust lawsuit filed by "Fortnite" game creator Epic Games.
In September, a US judge ordered Apple to change its App Store rules, which prohibit developers from inserting links in buttons to outside payment systems instead of using Apple's own in-app payments that charge additional sales commissions. The order will go into effect at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time on Thursday, December 9.
However, with less than 12 hours remaining before that deadline, the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals granted Apple's request to temporarily suspend the ruling.
According to a Reuters report, the appearance of the appeals court decision means Apple won't have to make changes as it pursues years of possible appeals against Epic Games' ruling, which largely favored the iPhone maker apart from an order to allow buttons to outside payment methods.
A lower court did not find that Apple violated any antitrust laws, but said the company violated California's unfair competition laws by not allowing developers to tell consumers about alternative ways to pay for the software.
"Apple has shown, at least, that its appeal raises serious questions about the merits of the district court's decision," the 9th Circuit Court wrote on Wednesday.
Apple said that "our concern is that this change will create new privacy and security risks, and disrupt the user experience that customers love about the App Store."
Epic declined to comment on Wednesday's decision.
Joel Mitnick, partner at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft and former US Federal Trade Commission trial attorney, said the 9th Circuit ruling gave little "tea leaf to decipher" about how the appeals would ultimately play out.
But he said the court "signed serious concern" that lower courts found Apple violated California's unfair competition laws but not federal antitrust laws.
He said the 9th circuit cited an earlier case stating that conduct that does not violate the antitrust laws cannot be grounds for finding injustice under the competition laws.
Randal Picker, a professor at the University of Chicago School of Law, said Wednesday's decision was "clearly good news for Apple. Good news in the short term because they don't have to implement changes to the App Store now, and a hint that Apple could win in the Ninth Circuit. when the case is considered fully on merit."
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