A court in California has ruled that Apple has violated state competition laws by prohibiting app developers from using in-app payment methods other than its own, which includes a 30% commission. The ruling, made on April 24 by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in the case of Apple vs Epic Games, may pave the way for non-fungible token (NFT) and cryptocurrency projects to add more functionality to their iOS apps. Unless Apple appeals the decision, developers are now free to direct app users to their own systems to make purchases.
This could set a case law precedent that benefits creators of crypto and NFT apps, as they will not be subject to Apple’s 30% “tax”. However, in December, Apple interfered with NFT transactions sent on Coinbase’s self-custody wallet claiming that it was entitled to “collect 30% of the gas fee” through in-app purchases.
