A long-awaited ruling on the Apple versus Epic Games legal battle could have major implications in Bitcoin and the crypto market. In August 2020, these two titans entered a legal battle over the alleged violation of the developer agreement by Epic with its popular game Fortnite.
As former director of Amazon Studios Matthew Ball said, the ruling was a loss for the videogames company. Epic Games lost 9 out of the 10 counts, but Apple could have lost a much bigger battle as it now must allow developers to include payment alternatives to its Apple Pay option. The court ruled:
(Apple has been) permanently restrained and enjoined from prohibiting developers from including in their apps and their metadata buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms, in addition to In-App Purchasing and communicating with customers through points of contact obtained voluntarily from customers through account registration within the app.
With the current agreement, Apple has the right to take around 30% of purchases made in the App Store and around 30% of in-game items. The company has purposely stop developers to include their own payment options to keep the profits from this agreement.
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By those calculations, Bitcoin and a Lightning Network implementation would be a much better deal for companies and developers launching apps in the App Store. The lawsuit could cost Epic Games, in addition to the already high fees collected by Apple, over $4 million in damages and compensation for not upholding its agreement with the tech giant.
Apple’s Mistakes Are Bitcoin (BTC) Gains?
In the crypto market, some people have already acknowledged the potential for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to bring some changes into Apple’s app ecosystem. Ran Neuner, the host for CNBC Crypto Trader, commented the following via Twitter:
This is HUGE for Crypto. Apple has dictated the payment mechanism for years, now the door is open for new payment methods!! The market doesn’t realize this yet.
Apple’s behavior has partially been ruled as anti-competitive by the court, as it’s usual with legal matters, the end could set another beginning. The process for either of the parties to appeal is open, and it could result in changes to the initial decision which seems to be already not beneficial overall, according to Ball:
(…) we have a situation where, at minimum, alternative payments are a pain, with unclear and potentially no benefit, and to the extent benefits exist, they’re concentrated among the biggest developers, not the small guy.
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In the past months, Apple has seen strong opposition on several fronts. In addition to its payment practices, the company has been called out for its attempts to breach its user’s privacy. This strengthens the case for Bitcoin payments, and other forms of use case that can leverage open, censorship resistance, and transparent networks.
I agree with this. @Apple must go further than merely "listening"—it must drop entirely its plans to put a backdoor into systems that provide vital protections to the public. Don't make us fight you for basic privacy rights.https://t.co/n4adiy6f0n
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) September 4, 2021
At the time of writing, Bitcoin trades at $44,542 with a 3.1% loss in the daily chart.
