I would think making sure outside payment links aren’t scams will be more expensive than that because checking that once isn’t sufficient. Scammers will update the target of such links, so you can’t just check this at app submission time. You also will have to check from around the world, from different IP address ranges, outside California business hours, etc, because scammer are smart enough to use such info to decide whether to show their scammy page.

Also, even if it becomes ‘only’ hundreds of dollars, I guess only large companies will be able to afford providing an option for outside payments.

Google are doing exactly the same as Apple previously were doing, mandatory from end of next month - January 28, 2026.

Their new requirements: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answ...

My understanding, at least several years ago, that Netflix was paying as much to Apple in subscription fees, as they did for their AWS hosting.

I also noticed when upgrading my Spotify account, I couldn't do that through the iphone app itself - I assumed this was because it would break TOS, or they didn't want to pay a massive chunck of the monthly subscription cost to Apple.

This would be for a clear subset of the web, with strong protections.

Obviously, on this venue the question is rhetorical. But Apple's prohibition on any kind of real web competition is a problem.

Before this ruling:

1. Apple were prohibited from charging any fee for external/referral purchases. Now this is once again allowed and the district court will work with all parties to develop a reasonable commission.

2. External links were permitted to dominate over IAP options. Now they must have equal size, prominence and quantity.

3. Apple were prevented from showing any kind of exit screen, that is now restored (but it can't be a scare screen).

4. Apple were barred from preventing certain developers/app classes from using external links (such as those enrolled in the News or Video Partner Programs) those are now reversed and Apple can once again prevent them.

Epic/Tim Sweeney are trying to spin these recent losses as a win. It's the old marketing playbook of hoping no one reads the fine print.

> Speaking to reporters Thursday night, though, Epic founder and CEO Tim Sweeney said he believes those should be “super super minor fees,” on the order of “tens or hundreds of dollars” every time an iOS app update goes through Apple for review.

Wow, one step forward, and one step back. Good job, Epic.

The outcome is obviously going to be that Apple's store will have the most apps, with the most up to date versions, and with the most free apps/games. I'm sure Fortnite will do just fine though.

Unless I'm misunderstanding this, why would the court allow Apple to act as a gatekeeper for their competitors?

it is not efficient, it doesn't incentivize high quality products, and the web proves that security / safety can be done in an open way.

Apple wins partial reversal of sanctions in Epic Games antitrust lawsuit

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulat... (https://archive.ph/Cbi3f)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46237312

Epic celebrates “the end of the Apple Tax” after appeals court win in iOS payments case

I mean, it's certainly not for lack of business insight. And you don't need the internet to sell applications.

- Apple shouldn't be able to charge for external payments, come on.

- Force prominent disclosure of refund policies. Epic Games doesn't allow them for IAP. Apple does. Epic knows exactly how predatory that is, betting some kids will find ways to spend thousands and the parents will be helpless. Ideally you'd have a law mandating refunds, but without that, there should be mandatory disclosure on the IAP screen, at least for microtransaction games. You can't have fair "competition" when you have an information asymmetry, and if these rulings don't mandate that, you'll open the floodgate for these gaming companies to screw over parents.

Look at the major companies aligned with Epic on this, like Match.com, and what they do.

If Jobs was still here, he would have fired all the fat management.

shame on you Apple, you are acting like M$!

Thats another industry that needs more competition.

The walled garden has to end. There is no excuse for making people pay a premium price for an iPad Pro that can't run a third party web browser or do software development in any meaningful way.

Outside of a very narrow use case, the iPad product range is useless, despite the endless rantings of the brainwashed fanboys. Source: used to be one. Left the ecosystem when they started treating the RFCs like toilet paper.