In September, a U.S. judge ordered Apple to change its App
Store rules, which ban developers from including links in buttons to outside
payment systems rather than using Apple's own in-app payments that charge a
commission on sales. The injunction was set to go into effect at 12:01 a.m.
Pacific Time on Thursday.
But with just slightly more than 12 hours remaining before
the deadline, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals granted Apple's request
to pause the order.
The appeals court order means Apple will not have to make
the changes while it pursues a potentially years-long appeal of the Epic Games
decision, which was largely favorable to the iPhone maker aside from the order
to allow buttons to outside payment methods.
The lower court did not find that Apple violated any
antitrust laws, but said the company broke California's unfair competition law
by not allowing developers to tell consumers about alternative ways to pay for
software.
"Apple has demonstrated, at minimum, that its appeal
raises serious questions on the merits of the district court’s
determination," the 9th Circuit Court wrote on Wednesday.
Apple said that "our concern is that these changes
would have created new privacy and security risks, and disrupted the user
experience customers love about the App Store."
Epic declined to comment on Wednesday.
Joel Mitnick, a partner at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft
and a former U.S. Federal Trade Commission trial lawyer, said the 9th Circuit's
ruling gave few "tea leaves to decipher" about how the appeal will
ultimately play out, but said the court is "signaling a serious
concern" that the lower court found Apple violated California unfair
competition laws but not federal antitrust laws.
He said the 9th circuit cited a previous case that held that
conduct that does not violate antitrust laws cannot be the basis for a finding
of unfairness under competition laws.
Randal Picker, a professor at the University of Chicago Law
School, said Wednesday's decision was "clearly good news for Apple. Good
news in the short run in that they don’t have to implement changes to the App
Store right now, and a hint that Apple may win in the Ninth Circuit when the
case is considered fully on the merits." – Reuters
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