The Apple vs. Epic Decision

Sadly, this case was treated as a dispute between two big corporates (and I don't blame the judge for it as that is what it essentially was). But from the perspective of right to privacy, consumer rights and the right to repair, huge issues of social concerns remains with the dangerous, yet highly profitable, business model of the Apple App Store:

1. It essentially takes away the rights of ownership from us as Apple gets to dictates what app we can own. A user can only install an app if it is available in the App Store. And they cannot roll back to a specific app version they want, nor have any guarantee of the app availability in the future if Apple deems it so.

2. It's a huge violation of our privacy rights as Apple gets valuable personal information on you based on the apps you choose to install. (E.g. Installed Grindr? Datapoint indicating you are Gay. Installed a religious app? A datapoint to your religious beliefs. Installed a political app? A datapoint to your political leanings.). These data allows Apple to better exploit you to make more money.

3. Forcing developers to pay a huge commission (30% - 60%) for what is essentially the use of a Payment gateway is a gross abuse as most online payment processors don't charge more than 5% for most transaction.

4. Worse still is that this exorbitant commission is passed on to the user without their knowledge - Apple knowingly and deliberately exploits all its users, who remain ignorant about how much money Apple undeservedly pockets from every transaction on the App Store.

5. To ensure this business model is not upended, Apple does not allow the installation of any other OS or software on its devices. This violates our right to repair to fix any issues and / or to extend the life of our device.

Consumers thus need to demand the following minimum guarantees from their government:

1. Allow installation of apps from outside the App Store.

2. When consumers pay, they should clearly know who their money is going to, and any commission or charges by Apple / BigTech should be listed and highlighted to the user on each transaction.

Solid analysis, and a great read. I'm happy you posted this, as I was disappointed by the other Apple v Epic article that was making its way around HN today [0]. This article is significantly more substantive IMO.

The author makes some wise predictions on Apple's response to the lawsuit. Particularly on whether Apple will appeal the injunction because it was based on the UCL, but the injunction applies nationwide. Though no matter what happens, I hope consumers and developers get a fair shake.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28507747

This was the correct decision legally and from the public interest perspective. The App Store complaints were always a contractual dispute between businesses. Developers hoped to ride the antitrust wave that emerged over the past 5-6 years to renegotiate the terms in their favor. Unfortunately for them there was never any legitimate antitrust issues with Apple, as the district court has now confirmed.

There's no reason for consumers to care about the business dispute developers have with Apple any more than they care about the carriage disputes between media and cable companies. And there are plenty of reasons why they would side with Apple, some of which were discussed in the court's decision.