by Dan Moren
Apple’s request for a stay denied in Epic case
Epic v. Apple judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers says Apple must comply with an order to let developers add links and buttons to external payment options, denying the company’s motion for a stay. “Apple’s motion is based on a selective reading of this Court’s findings and ignores all of the findings which supported the injunction,” her new order reads.
Despite winning nine out of ten counts in the Apple v. Epic, Cupertino decided it was going to push for a perfect score by appealing the one place it lost (specifically, the judge’s decision that Apple can’t stop developers from linking out of their apps for alternative forms of payment). That change is scheduled to go into effect next month; Apple’s request for a stay was an attempt to delay that change, by claiming that it needed more time to figure out how implementation would work and that appeals were still pending, but Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has denied that request.
So what happens next? Apple hasn’t exhausted its options: the company plans to appeal to the Ninth Circuit to grant the stay (and in theory, it could take it to the Supreme Court), but there are no guarantees. So it’s certainly within the realm of possibility that the App Store landscape might be in for a change as early as next month.
That said, even with the ability to link out of apps, the rest of the decisions in the Apple v. Epic case don’t make it an unmitigated win for developers (or consumers). There exists the possibility that even if consumers choose to take advantage of external payment options, developers could still end up having to pay a cut to Apple for use of the store and platform.