Phil Schiller, a top Apple leader who helps run the App Store, told a court on Monday that he wasn’t thrilled about the 27% fee Apple now charges for purchases made outside its store. He worried it might upset developers and make Apple look like a bill collector, according to AP News.
Schiller shared these thoughts during a three-hour talk in court as part of a legal fight with Epic Games. “I wasn’t happy about chasing developers for money,” he said. He feared it would strain Apple’s bond with app makers and change how the App Store works by forcing it to track down payments.
Even with Schiller’s doubts, Apple’s big decision-makers—including CEO Tim Cook, the former money boss Luca Maestri, and the legal crew—went ahead with the plan. They settled on the 27% fee (a slight drop from the usual 30%) after a 2021 court case with Epic Games. The judge, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, said Apple wasn’t a monopoly but had to stop blocking developers from pointing users to other payment options outside the App Store.
So, Apple made a system where developers can get permission to add links to outside payment sites. But there’s a catch—Apple still takes a 27% cut on sales made within a week of clicking those links. Smaller businesses pay 12% instead of 15%. Epic’s boss, Tim Sweeney, called this a sneaky way to dodge the court’s real goal of opening up competition.
The court talks, set to wrap up by Wednesday, are digging into whether Apple’s following the rules from that earlier ruling. Judge Rogers isn’t thrilled, saying Apple’s team seems fuzzy on how they came up with the payment setup. Court papers show Apple studied how a clunkier outside payment process might push developers back to its own system. This whole clash started in 2020 when Epic pushed to break Apple’s control over in-app purchases, where Apple grabs 15% to 30% of the cash. It’s still a heated battle!