Apple is now free to direct users to payments outside of its ecosystem

Crypto app developers are now free to direct users to payments outside of Apple's ecosystem without restrictions or hefty fees, after a United States district judge ruled that Apple violated an injunction in its antitrust legal battle against Epic Games.

"The Court finds Apple in willful violation of this Court's 2021 Injunction, which was issued to restrain and prohibit Apple's anticompetitive conduct and anticompetitive pricing. Apple's continued attempts to interfere with competition will not be tolerated," US district judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said in an April 30 court filing.

Apple must make changes "effective immediately"

"Effective immediately, Apple will no longer impede developers' ability to communicate with users, nor will they levy or impose a new commission on off-app purchases," Rogers added.

Rogers reiterated, "This is an injunction, not a negotiation. There are no do-overs once a party willfully disregards a court order. Time is of the essence."

The ruling stated that Apple must not impose "any commission or any fee on purchases that consumers make outside an app." It added, "no reason exists to audit, monitor, track or require developers to report purchases or any other activity that consumers make outside an app."

It was ruled that Apple can't control how developers design or place links that lead users to buy items outside the app. Apple also cannot exclude "certain categories of apps and developers from obtaining link access."

Following the court ruling, several crypto industry participants noticed that Apple guidelines were updated, with some claiming that the tone of the guidelines suggests they weren't too pleased with the ruling.

Appfigures co-founder and CEO Ariel Michaeli said that people may find Apple's "passive aggressive language confusing."

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Michaeli summarized Apple's update as Apps can now link to an external non-fungible token (NFT) collection, can link outside of the App Store without needing an entitlement, and can link to an external payment system without requiring an entitlement.

Crypto commentator "Xero" told their 50,000 X followers on May 2 that this means mobile crypto games and apps will be able to open up Web3 wallets and the like for users to make purchases in the way that the developer intends.

"This is hugely bullish for mobile crypto games and apps. Expect to start seeing seamless on-ramps to crypto wallets and games in the latter half of 2024," Xero said.

Alex Masmej, a writer and programmer focused on AI and crypto, stated that this is "huge for crypto."

On the same day, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said that they would be relaunching Fortnite to the U.S. Apple App Store.

"Epic puts forth a peace proposal: If Apple extends the court's friction-free, Apple-tax-free framework worldwide, we'll return Fortnite to the App Store worldwide and drop current and future litigation on the topic," Sweeney said.

In August 2023, Justice Elena Kagan declined to let a federal appeals court decision take immediate effect as Epic had asked — with no explanation for the decision.