Judge rules Apple violated court injunction in Fortnite maker case

People visit an Apple Store, inside a shopping mall, in Beijing (AP)

A US federal judge has strongly rebuked Apple, finding the iPhone maker willfully violated a court injunction in an antitrust case filed by Fortnite maker Epic Games.

US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers had ordered Apple to lower the barriers protecting its previously exclusive payment system for in-app digital transactions and allow developers to display links to alternative options.

On Wednesday, she found Apple violated a 2021 injunction which, she wrote, sought to “restrain and prohibit the iPhone maker’s anticompetitive conduct” and pricing.

“Apple’s continued attempts to interfere with competition will not be tolerated,” she wrote in Wednesday’s ruling, which held Apple in contempt.

Contemporaneous business documents reveal that Apple knew exactly what it was doing and at every turn chose the most anticompetitive option.

She ordered that Apple “no longer impede developers’ ability to communicate with users nor will they levy or impose a new commission on off-app purchases”.

Epic first filed an antitrust lawsuit in 2020 alleging that Apple had built an illegal monopoly around its popular App Store, which makes billions of dollars annually from a then-exclusive payment system that collects commissions ranging from 15% to 30% on in-app commerce.

Although the judge had rejected the monopoly claims, she ordered Apple to lower the barriers protecting its previously exclusive payment system for in-app digital transactions and allow developers to display links to alternative options.

The Supreme Court rejected Apple’s appeal in the case in January 2024.

“In stark contrast to Apple’s initial in-court testimony, contemporaneous business documents reveal that Apple knew exactly what it was doing and at every turn chose the most anticompetitive option,” the judge wrote on Wednesday. She accused Apple’s vice-president of finance Alex Roman of “outright” lying under oath.

“Internally, (long-time Apple executive) Phillip Schiller had advocated that Apple comply with the injunction, but (chidef executive) Tim Cook ignored Schiller and instead allowed Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri and his finance team to convince him otherwise. Cook chose poorly,” she wrote.

The judge referred the matter to the US Attorney for the Northern District of California to investigate whether criminal contempt proceedings are appropriate.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.