Major app developers didn't sign up for a third-party payment option that Apple introduced for the App Store earlier this year because they were paying more than before, a federal judge testified.
The company's apparent lack of interest in making changes to combat anti-competitive behavior drew sharp criticism from US District Judge Yvonne Rogers, who presided over the lawsuit between the tech giant and Epic Games. I've been working on Fortnite for almost four years.
“It seems to me that our goal is to maintain the business and revenue model that existed in the past,” Rogers told Apple executives during a multi-day hearing on Epic Games' complaints that Apple is not respecting the company's corporate terms. Judge's decision 2021.
Apple announced last January that all third-party apps sold in the US would be allowed to contain external links to the developer's website to process payments for in-app purchases.
Since then, Apple has received just 38 requests for external links from about 65,000 developers of apps that offer in-app purchases, company executives said.
In fact, Apple charges developers who want to use external links a 27% fee.
At the hearing, the judge was told that the total, when payment processing fees are added, exceeds 30% of what the App Store has charged over the years.
Years of complaints from app developers and censorship by governments around the world have forced Apple to rewrite some rules to protect its dominance in an app sales market worth more than $200 billion annually.
Epic Games argued that Apple's overhaul of App Store rules in January did not bring about any significant changes, while Apple claimed it provided the solution Rogers requested three years ago after a test between the two companies.
Rogers said Apple didn't convince her it was doing enough. Testimony showed that 27% of the spending was approved by a committee made up of CEO Tim Cook and other senior executives.
Alex Roman, Apple's vice president of finance, said there has been no request from major app developers to join the new external links program.