District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, in a Wednesday filing, lambasted Apple and its executives for their behavior during the Epic Games antitrust case, writing that they violated a 2021 injunction in the case.
Rogers, in her order, wrote that Alex Roman, Apple’s vice president of finance, “outright lied” to the court while under oath about when Apple decided to impose a 27% commission fee on transactions facilitated through its App Store. Roman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Neither Apple, nor its counsel, corrected the, now obvious, lies,” Rogers wrote. “They did not seek to withdraw the testimony or to have it stricken (although Apple did request that the Court strike other testimony). Thus, Apple will be held to have adopted the lies and misrepresentations to this Court.”
The court referred the matter to the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California “to investigate whether criminal contempt proceedings are appropriate.”
The ruling stems from a case brought against Apple by the video game developer Epic Games in 2020, in which Epic Games accused Apple of engaging in anticompetitive practices related to its control over the App Store and in-app payment systems.
In 2021, following a trial, the court ruled that Apple’s restrictions on in-app purchasing methods outside the one offered by the App Store were indeed anticompetitive. The ruling largely favored Apple, finding that the company had engaged in anticompetitive behavior in only one of 10 counts.
The Court then issued an injunction forcing Apple to allow developers to inform users about external purchasing options, but Rogers says the company refused to comply with the injunction. She wrote that
“Apple’s response to the Injunction strains credulity,” Rogers wrote in the Wednesday filing. “After two sets of evidentiary hearings, the truth emerged. Apple, despite knowing its obligations thereunder, thwarted the Injunction’s goals, and continued its anticompetitive conduct solely to maintain its revenue stream. Remarkably, Apple believed that this Court would not see through its obvious cover-up.”
An Apple spokesperson told Business Insider that the company “strongly” disagrees with the court’s decision.
“We will comply with the court’s order, and we will appeal,” the spokesperson said.
