Hello everyone. Today's update will be dedicating to discussing the latest chapter of the Epic Games vs. Apple legal battle in the U.S. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld all of the district court’s rulings that Epic had appealed. We go over Neil’s thoughts on the ruling, why App Store curation is playing such a big role with the App Store’s defense, and why Apple’s anti-steering provision loss isn’t a major blow to the company. Let's jump right in.

U.S. Appeals Court Sides With App Store

Back in September 2021, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (the district court) issued its 185-page ruling in Epic Games vs. Apple. The district court's ruling was an unequivocal beating for Epic Games. We won’t go over all of the details of the case in this update. You can do so by reading the September 13th, 2021 daily update. Instead, there were four primary takeaways from that ruling:

iOS App Distribution. The district court ruled Apple can’t have a monopoly over iOS app distribution because that’s no different than saying a company has a monopoly over a service that only it can provide.
In-App Purchases. The district court found that IAP is not a separate product. Instead, it’s part of the iOS experience. That was a crucial determination as it played a role in the court declaring Apple’s requirement to have iOS developers use IAP (and Apple payment) as legal.
Switching Costs. The district court did not buy Epic’s arguments about the App Store increasing switching costs and customer lock-in. The court said Epic did not provide anything to show consumers actually faced switching costs moving from iOS to other gaming platforms.
App Store Curation. The district court upheld Apple’s App Store curation model involving human review.

On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

An Above Avalon membership is required to continue reading this update. Members can read the full update here. An audio version of this update is available to members who have the podcast add-on attached to their membership. More information about the podcast add-on is found here.

(Members: Daily Updates are always accessible by logging into Slack. If you haven’t logged into Slack before, fill out this form to receive an invite.)

Above Avalon Membership

Subscribe $20/month

Subscribe $200/year

Payment is processed and secured by Stripe. Apple Pay and other mobile payment options are accepted. Special Inside Orchard bundle pricing is available for Above Avalon members.

More information about Above Avalon membership, including the full list of benefits and privileges, is available here.