X, Microsoft, Spotify, Match, Meta, and others are suing Apple

The "Fortnite" video game developer Epic Games is being accompanied in their protest against Apple's noncompliance with a court-ordered injunction limiting payments in its profitable App Store by Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Elon Musk's X, and Match Group. The companies, who created some of the most well-known apps in the App Store, said Apple was in "clear violation" of the Sept. 2021 injunction by making it difficult to steer consumers to cheaper means to pay for digital content.

It referred to its January 16 statement that it had fully complied with the injunction, which it said would protect consumers and "the integrity of Apple's ecosystem" while ensuring that developers do not get a free ride.

Epic had sued Apple in 2020, saying it violated antitrust law by requiring consumers to obtain apps through the App Store and charging developers up to 30% commissions on purchases.

The injunction required Apple to let developers provide links and buttons to direct consumers to alternative payment options.

Last week, Epic demanded that Apple be held in contempt, saying new rules and a new 27% fee on developers made the links effectively useless.

In the latest filing, the technology companies said Apple's conduct "for all practical purposes" entrenches anti-steering rules that the court found illegal, propping up Apple's "excessive" commissions and harming consumers and developers.

"Apple's restrictions on where and how developers can communicate with their users about their options for purchasing in-app content create significant barriers to competition and artificially inflate prices," the filing said.

In January, the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to hear Apple's appeal from the injunction. It also decided against hearing Epic's appeal of lower court findings that Apple's policies did not violate federal antitrust law.