Apple has been referred to federal prosecutors after a judge ruled one of its executives lied under oath during its dispute with the developer of video game Fortnite.
The tech giant was found to have violated a court order that required it to allow greater competition for app downloads and payment methods on its App Store.
In a scathing assessment, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, district judge in Oakland, said one of the company’s executives had given testimony “replete with misdirection and outright lies” as part of the competition lawsuit brought by Epic Games.
She referred Alex Roman, Apple’s vice president of finance, to federal prosecutors for a criminal contempt investigation over his evidence about the steps Apple had taken to comply with her injunction.
“Apple’s continued attempts to interfere with competition will not be tolerated,” Judge Gonzalez Rogers said in an 80-page ruling. “This is an injunction, not a negotiation. There are no do-overs once a party wilfully disregards a court order.”
Apple, which reports its first quarter results later on Thursday, said it “strongly disagrees” with the decision.
It added: “We will comply with the court’s order and we will appeal.”
Epic Games sued Apple in 2020 over the restrictions and fees imposed by its iPhone App Store, which it alleged were anticompetitive. At the time, Epic had added options to bypass Apple’s fees, which can be as high as 30pc, by adding its own payment system, resulting in it being kicked out of its digital store.
Epic was largely defeated in the ensuing lawsuit, with Apple ruled not to have an illegal monopoly over app downloads. However, the court did order Apple to make changes to how its store operates, such as forcing it to allow links that will take users outside its App Store to make digital payments.
Tim Sweeney, Epic Games’ chief executive, called the judge’s latest order a significant win for developers and consumers.
“It forces Apple to compete with other payment services rather than blocking them, and this is what we wanted all along,” he said. Sweeney added that Epic Games would aim to bring back Fortnite to the App Store next week.
Gonzalez Rogers in 2021 found Apple violated a California competition law and ordered the company to allow developers more freedom to direct app users to other payment options.
Apple failed last year to persuade the US Supreme Court to strike down the injunction, although the court also declined to hear an appeal from Epic Games.
Epic Games told the court in March 2024 that Apple was “blatantly” violating the court’s order, including by imposing a new 27pc fee on app developers when Apple customers complete an app purchase outside the App Store.
