Washington, D.C. – In response to news that a federal judge ruled that Apple must comply with an injunction by “immediately” allowing all U.S. app developers let consumers make cheaper purchases through the developers’ websites, held Apple in civil contempt for violating a court injunction in a case brought by Epic Games, and referred Apple’s misconduct to the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California “to investigate whether criminal contempt proceedings are appropriate,” both against Apple and an executive who “outright lied under oath,” the American Economic Liberties Project released the following statement.

“This ruling will free App Store developers from Apple’s tyranny and will unleash an abundance of innovation and new business,” said Matt Stoller, Director of Research at the American Economic Liberties Project. “Apple knowingly violated a federal court order for over a year to protect its monopoly profits, lied about it under oath, and got caught. This wasn’t the work of one rogue executive—it was a deliberate decision made at the highest levels, including by Tim Cook. The court was right to hold Apple in contempt and refer it for criminal prosecution. And this case makes one thing clear: judges must stop relying on weak behavioral remedies and start imposing structural relief, because monopolists will always choose profits over compliance.”

“Epic Games deserves enormous credit for staying in this fight for over four years,” added Stoller. “Because of their persistence, developers can now offer lower prices, invest in better products, and innovate without fear of retaliation.”

Epic filed an antitrust complaint targeting Apple’s anticompetitive App Store practices in August 2020. In September 2021, Judge Gonzalez Rogers ruled for Apple on Epic’s federal antitrust claims because she prized technocratic “market definition” requirements over “practical indicia”– in other words, she overlooked direct evidence of how the market actually works. However, she ruled in favor of Epic under California’s unfair competition law, and issued a permanent injunction ordering Apple to refrain from preventing developers from adding links that “direct customers to [other] purchasing mechanisms.”

Apple first delayed enforcement of the injunction through meritless appeals. After exhausting all appeals, in January 2024, Apple told the court it was complying with the injunction. Epic responded with a motion arguing that Apple was defying the court’s order. Epic explained that compliance with the court’s injunction “should have been simple; all Apple needed to do was to remove the illegal anti-steering language from its App Store Review Guidelines.” Instead, Apple provided a pseudo-alternative to its 30% App Store fees by charging developers a 27% fee to include links to their own websites and their own payment processing options– which is equivalent to Apple’s 30% fee once typical 3% credit card service fees are taken into account. To further ensure developers could not actually benefit from this alternative, Apple shows consumers “scare screens” specifically designed to deter them from clicking on links to developers’ websites. The court held a series of hearings in May 2024. Despite finding Apple executives’ justifications worthy of deep skepticism, the court allowed discovery disputes to delay resolution of Apple’s violation of the injunction until April 30, 2025.

Separately, in March 2024, the Biden-Harris administration’s Department of Justice, along with sixteen other state and district attorneys general, filed a lawsuit targeting Apple’s monopolization of high-end smartphone markets. In June 2024, Apple became the first company charged with violating Europe’s new Digital Markets Act because of its exorbitant fees and similar noncompliant anti-steering practices in its App Store. In August 2024, Apple threatened to remove popular crowdfunding app Patreon from the iOS App Store unless Patreon forced the creators using its services—typically independent podcasters, musicians, artists, and developers—to use Apple’s own billing system. This would impose a 30% transaction fee on them, one significantly higher than the fee they pay to Patreon.

Learn more about Apple’s abuses in our Big Tech Abuse Tracker here.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.