- A federal judge struck down the “Apple tax” on Thursday.
- Apple has long insisted on taking a cut on purchases made within and outside iPhone applications.
- Crypto stands to benefit from the change.
Crypto companies see a potential windfall after a federal judge on Thursday struck down the “Apple tax” — the tech giant’s policy of limiting user purchases made outside iPhone applications, where it takes a 30% cut.
“This is huge for integration with mobile wallets where users can spend their crypto directly … without having to pay extra fees,” Cygaar, a pseudonymous software developer at Abstract Chain, wrote on X.
“The days of having to use mobile web pages to buy/sell NFTs are over — apps can now enable NFT purchases directly.“
Developers who create apps for the iPhone have chafed at Apple’s policies. The company takes 30% of any purchase made inside an iPhone application, and has for years prevented developers from directing app users to their own websites, where purchases can be made outside Apple’s purview.
In 2021, a court said the practice violated antitrust law. In response, Apple relaxed its restriction on directing users to out-of-app purchases, but demanded a 27% cut on those purchases.
On Thursday, federal judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers slammed Apple’s attempt to maintain its anticompetitive grip on application developers.
“Apple will no longer impede developers’ ability to communicate with users nor will
they levy or impose a new commission on off-app purchases,” she wrote.
Among other things, Rogers’ order forbids Apple from imposing commissions or fees on purchases made outside an iPhone app, restricting developers’ ability to direct users to out-of-app payment options, and interfering with users’ choice of those options.
Apple’s policies were “the biggest barrier of mainstream adoption for digital asset purchases,” Alfonso Gómez-Jordana, co-founder of crypto company Crossmint, wrote on X.
“You couldn’t basically sell them on mobile — Apple taxed them 30% — a regulation that didn’t apply to physical goods,” he said.
“Yet two-thirds of all e-commerce transactions occur on mobile. The death of the Apple Tariff is extremely bullish for the digital asset economy.”
Apple has updated its App Store guidelines to comply with the judge’s order, trade publication 9to5mac.com reported.
Apple has said it will appeal the order.
Aleks Gilbert is DL News’ New York-based DeFi reporter. You can reach him at aleks@dlnews.com.