‘Cook chose poorly’: how Apple blew up its control over the App Store

In 2021, a federal judge ruled that Apple had to loosen its grip, ever so slightly, on the App Store. On Wednesday, nearly four years later, that same judge found that Apple deliberately failed to do so and tried to hide its noncompliance in the process. In a furious opinion, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said that she wouldn't give Apple a second chance to get it right: instead, she's demanding specific changes to the App Store, ripping away Apple's grip after years of unsubstantial alterations in response.

The ruling describes a deliberate process by which Apple sized up how to comply with the court's original order, only to choose an anticompetitive option "at every step."

In its 2021 legal battle with Epic Games, Apple won most of the case. But the company walked away from the trial with a court order mandating that developers be allowed to include links and buttons within their apps that would direct users to purchase methods outside the App Store - also known as the "anti-steering injunction." Perhaps as a reflection of how well Apple had fared in court, the injunction did not strictly define what Apple could or could not do: it was vague enough that it left open a loophole …

Read the full story at The Verge.