App developers have long complained about the “walled garden” that Apple and Google maintain around their mobile ecosystems, but now they may have found the pressure valve they’ve been seeking.
A newly formed coalition – led by Meta, Spotify, Garmin, Match Group, and others – is taking aim at what it calls the “duopoly” that governs mobile app distribution. And its campaign may be gaining traction just as Apple finds itself in deeper legal trouble than previously anticipated.
The Coalition for a Competitive Mobile Experience, officially announced this week, has set out with the goal of challenging what it sees as unfair dominance by Apple and Google over how mobile apps are distributed, monetized, and regulated. Initial advocacy efforts are focused on pushing app stores to take over age verification responsibilities – a move currently left to individual developers. But the coalition’s ambitions are much broader: to dismantle platform favoritism, demand open payment systems, and back antitrust investigations and lawsuits against the tech giants.
The timing of the coalition’s launch coincided with a stinging federal court ruling against Apple. On Wednesday, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California found Apple in contempt of court for deliberately circumventing a 2021 injunction that was meant to prevent anticompetitive behavior in its App Store policies.
According to the judge, Apple knowingly continued imposing commission fees – up to 27% – on purchases made through links that directed users to developers’ own websites. These purchases were explicitly meant to bypass Apple’s in-app payment system, which takes a 30% cut. The court found that Apple’s workaround wasn’t just non-compliant but intentionally designed to preserve what had already been ruled an anticompetitive revenue stream.
“Apple’s continued attempts to interfere with competition will not be tolerated,” Judge Rogers wrote in a scathing opinion. “That it thought this court would tolerate such insubordination was a gross miscalculation… As always, the cover-up made it worse. For this court, there is no second bite at the apple.”
The judge also ordered Apple to immediately stop collecting commissions on out-of-app transactions and pay Epic Games’ legal fees, after determining that the company lied under oath and withheld critical internal documentation.
In a particularly damning passage, Rogers said Apple Vice President of Finance Alex Roman “outright lied under oath” when he testified that the company hadn’t determined what fee to apply until January 2024. Internal evidence later revealed that Apple not only considered its fee structure much earlier but also knowingly set the rate just above the cost developers would incur by setting up their own payment systems, making Apple’s “discount” illusory.
The judge accused Apple of abusing privilege protections to hide records of a June 2023 executive meeting that included CEO Tim Cook. The documents, only recently submitted to the court, allegedly revealed how Apple executives strategized on maintaining revenue while giving the illusion of compliance with the earlier ruling.
“This evidence shows a desire to conceal Apple’s real decision-making process,” Rogers wrote, “particularly where those decisions involved senior Apple executives.”
The ruling is a dramatic escalation in the ongoing legal battle between Apple and Epic Games, which began in 2020 when Apple removed Epic’s popular game Fortnite from the App Store after Epic introduced a direct payment option that bypassed Apple’s cut. That case led to the 2021 injunction ordering Apple to allow developers to direct users to external purchasing options. Apple’s attempts to blunt the impact of that ruling have now landed it in deeper legal jeopardy, with possible criminal contempt charges now under consideration by U.S. attorneys.
In response, Apple said it “strongly disagrees with the decision” but will comply and appeal. Meanwhile, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney declared victory, posting on X (formerly Twitter), “No fees on web transactions. Game over for the Apple Tax.” Sweeney said Fortnite will return to the U.S. iOS App Store next week and may reappear globally if Apple expands the new framework worldwide.
The court’s ruling significantly boosts the new coalition’s efforts. For years, developers large and small have struggled to challenge Apple and Google on their own. Now, with legal precedent turning against Apple, the coalition is betting that its unified voice can force regulatory and legislative changes.
Brandon Kressin, the coalition’s director and a seasoned antitrust attorney, told Bloomberg that many smaller developers are fearful of retaliation or simply lack the resources to take on Apple or Google alone.
“There’s power in numbers, especially when going up against companies as powerful as the duopoly,” he said.
The coalition has already thrown its weight behind new laws, such as Utah’s statute requiring app stores, not individual developers, to handle age verification. It’s also backing broader federal efforts to curtail Big Tech dominance and is expected to support the Department of Justice’s ongoing antitrust lawsuits against both Apple and Google.
For Apple, the contempt ruling may only be the beginning. The company is already under growing scrutiny from U.S. and European regulators, with multiple cases focusing on whether it unfairly promotes its own services and limits developer freedom. The latest setback not only reinforces existing concerns about Apple’s conduct but also raises serious questions about its internal compliance culture.
The coalition is positioning itself to be more than just a lobbying group – it’s aiming to be a catalyst for change in an industry that has long operated under tightly controlled terms dictated by the very platforms developers rely on. With Epic’s partial victory, increasing bipartisan momentum in Washington, and now a federal judge openly accusing Apple of deception, the momentum seems to be shifting.
