Apple Granted Extra Time To Implement Anti-steering Measures

So the deadline was more of a "suggestion" than an actual deadline.

In the wake of the legal tussle between Apple and Epic Games, the one action that was required of Apple was supposedly that it would have to implement ways for developers to link to alternate payment methods outside the App Store. The measures would have to be in place 90 days after the ruling was handed down, but Apple asked for more time to handle the "complex and rapidly evolving legal, technological, and economic issues" that making such changes would require.

Epic understandably called any delay unacceptable, and Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers agreed. On November 10, she said that Apple "provided no credible reason for the Court to believe that the injunction would cause the professed devastation" and re-iterated the deadline of December 9 -- today.

It will come as a surprise to no one that the deadline will not be enforced, as a panel of circuit judges has overruled Judge Rogers and granted Apple additional time. According to GamesIndustry.biz, the judges determined that Apple's appeal "raises serious questions on the merits of the district court's determination that Epic Games, Inc. failed to show Apple's conduct violated any antitrust laws but did show that the same conduct violated California's Unfair Competition Law." In other words, they're uncertain as to why the company should be punished in California but not the rest of the country. The company has been granted the necessary time to appeal the ruling.

And so the saga rolls on. At this rate, it might actually be years, as Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said, before it's all resolved. Maybe it will be handled by the time Fortnite 2 launches sometime in the 2030s.