At the same time, the court ordered Google to make it easier to install third-party app stores.
Apple has asked the court to allow it to charge fees of up to 15% for purchases made outside of its App Store payment system in the United States. This is still part of the long legal battle between Apple and Epic Games, which has been going on since 2020. 9to5Mac And Woozad report that the company has submitted a proposal to the court with the commission that it considers reasonable to charge for payments made through external links and third-party services.
The proposal’s highest commission percentage of 15% will apply to apps that pay Apple a 30% cut of App Store payments. Apple is offering a 10% discount on apps in its News Partner Program, Video Partner Program, and Mini Apps Partner Program, as well as subscription renewals. Finally, Apple will receive a 5% discount on apps that are part of its Small Business program as part of the proposal. The “vast majority” of the platform’s developers are qualified for the Small Business program and have paid Apple a 15% commission on purchases made through the App Store billing system since 2020.
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is overseeing the antitrust trial, ordered Apple to allow developers to connect to external payment systems as early as 2021 so they would not have to pay the company a 30% commission on their sales. However, Apple still took a 12-27% cut of these transactions, prompting Epic Games to accuse it of non-compliance.
Last year, the judge found Apple in contempt of court and ordered it to stop charging fees on external payments altogether. Although the appeals court upheld the ruling after Apple appealed, it also overturned Judge Gonzalez Rogers’ order barring the company from collecting fees on external payments. Now the judge must determine what is a fair commission to charge Apple.
Google has also been fighting the same legal battle with Epic Games for years. It finally opened the Play Store to external billing on June 30 this year and reduced its commission to 10%, regardless of the payment system the customer uses. In July, it started allowing third-party app stores on the Android platform. According to The edgethe two sides just clashed in court again, with Epic claiming that Google is making it too complicated for rival app stores to install. After showing the court that installing third-party app stores on Android requires several steps, the judge ordered Google to remove “anti-competitive frictions.”
