Stash reposted this
Seeing a lot of confusion about last week's Epic v. Apple update, which was mostly a process decision, but the real case will have massive implications for the industry (conclusion up top; legal details below): The courts are currently deciding what fees Apple will be allowed to charge on linked-out purchases but, for now, nothing is changing in the near term and zero-fee link-outs continue in the USA. A quick recap: in April 2025, the court forced Apple to allow zero-fee web-based checkout in the US App Store, rejecting Apple's initial "compliance" (27% fees) as deliberately and prohibitively expensive, while finding Apple in contempt after execs "outright lied under oath." Apple was required to remove all restrictions on link-outs, banned from taxing them, and required to seek court approval for any future anti-steering policy changes. A December 2025 ruling mostly upheld that decision but opening the door to Apple taking a reduced fee based on any💲"necessary costs"💲required to support external links and some slight compensation. Crucially, the court placed severe restrictions on the scope of this fee (see screenshot), and Judge Gonzalez Rogers and the District Court are now determining what that fee should be. Which brings us to last week. Apple wanted to pause those proceedings while it appeals its contempt status to the Supreme Court, because the contempt finding likely means a lower fee ceiling. Epic wanted the reverse. Apple briefly succeeded: the Ninth Circuit granted a stay on April 6, before Epic challenged it and had it reversed on April 28. Both tracks now run in parallel as the District Court – deciding what fees Apple can take – has two options: modify the injunction to set a permanent fee ceiling, or issue a conditional contempt sanction Apple can purge by keeping fees below a set level. Either way, three things seem likely: 🌐 a) link-outs are here to stay in the US; 🌐 b) developers will eventually pay some fee; 🌐 c) that fee will likely be low enough that link-outs remain viable, given the court's instruction that it must reflect genuine coordination costs only. Overall this is good news for devs. I am increasingly confident that link-out purchases will remain viable on iOS, and until a fee is set the zero-fee window remains in place. If you haven't built a link-out flow yet, what are you waiting for?!? Stash can get you up and running in days! Keep following for the latest in all things #mobilegames #DTC!