Epic Games has filed its response to Apple’s request for the court to order settlement talks in the long-running App Store lawsuit. Here are the details.
Last Thursday, Apple submitted its proposed commission structure for in-app purchases made outside of the App Store system in the US. On the same day, Apple submitted another motion , asking Judge Gonzalez Rogers to order the parties to attend a settlement conference. Under Apple’s proposed structure, the company would charge commissions of up to 15% on purchases completed through alternative payment systems.
In its motion, Apple said that “discussions of a potential settlement in a confidential, non-adversarial setting would increase the likelihood of reaching a practical resolution that could obviate the need for prolonged remand proceedings.”
Because epic’s lawsuit is not a class action, the injunction should not broadly apply to other developers, in particular, Apple has argued that. It is now up to Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to decide whether to refer the case to a settlement conference, which Apple has requested to be held under the supervision of Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero. Apple has repeatedly attempted to narrow the scope of Judge Gonzalez Rogers’s injunction regarding purchases made outside the App Store.
Epic has now responded to Apple’s motion, stating that although the company “has been, and remains today, willing to entertain any direct approach from Apple with a serious settlement proposal that would introduce competition and benefit all developers,” it “does not believe the prospects of such settlement would be meaningfully advanced through referral to a settlement conference at this juncture.
