Apple’s request to scrap a December 9th deadline to change its App Store policies was denied.
Apple asked U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to allow the company to implement the new app store requirements at its own pace. As a refresher, Gonzalez Rogers previously ruled that Apple would need to allow direct communications between users and app makers. Additionally, the company would need to allow app makers to include links to the web to complete transactions, giving developers and customers alternate methods of paying for content.
At the time, the judge gave Apple 90 days to change the rules, but the iPhone-maker argued that wasn’t enough time. Instead, the company wants the deadline removed so it won’t have to rush the adjustment. Apple’s lawyer argued that the company can’t make policy changes at a global level quickly. The lawyer claimed it would take months to figure out the engineering, economic, business and other issues.
However, according to Bloomberg, Gonzalez Rogers responded: “The problem is that you haven’t asked for additional time.” Instead, she said Apple is seeking her blessing to take years to make the change she ordered.
Epic Games’ lawyers also weighed in, arguing that “Apple does nothing unless it is forced to do it” and suggesting that the company can’t be trusted to sort out the policy changes on its own.
Gonzalez Rogers wrote in her decision that Apple wanted “an open-ended stay with no requirement that it make an effort to comply.” Further, she wrote that there were “multiple avenues” Apple could take to comply that wouldn’t harm users, despite what the company argued.
“The Court is not convinced, but nor is it here to micromanage. Consumers are quite used to linking from an app to a web browser. Other than, perhaps, needing time to establish Guidelines, Apple has provided no credible reason for the Court to believe that the injunction would cause the professed devastation.”
Apple confirmed to The Verge that it plans to appeal to the Ninth Circuit for a stay.
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