Apple Files An Appeal Against US Judge's Decision Regarding Alleged Anti- Monopoly On App Store

Illustration (photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Apple filed an appeal against challenging the decision of the US judge who ordered the tech company to immediately make the App Store fairer and open to competition.

Apple said it would ask the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco to review the April 30 ruling, which states Apple violated previous orders in the 2020 antitrust lawsuit filed by Epic Games.

US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said in his decision that Apple deliberately failed to comply with the 2021 order, which could make it easier for app developers related to other payment methods outside of Apple to be cheaper.

Gonzalez Rogers also referred Apple and one of its executives to federal prosecutors for a possible criminal insult investigation. He refused to delay his order, accusing Apple of delaying and intentionally misleading the court.

At that time, he assessed that Apple's efforts to create new obstacles that actually hinder competition, such as by applying a commission fee of 27 percent on external payments.

"That Apple thinks this court will tolerate such disobedience is a huge miscalculation," Gonzalez Rogers stressed in his ruling.

The judge also accused Apple's executive of trying to hide its true intentions behind its new policy. He called the testimony of Alex Roman, Apple's Vice President of Finance, "full of entanglement and lies."

Roman previously defended commission 27 percent's policies in court, but the judge stated internal documents show that Apple is fully aware of the policy being designed to maintain market dominance.

Apple expressed its disapproval of the ruling. "We strongly disagree with the decision. We will comply with the court order and will appeal," Apple spokeswoman Olivia Dalton told WIRED.