Minimal News_

The top brass at Apple just think they are above everyone else. Remember when Tim Cook lied about Apple not giving anyone special terms in the app store and that everyone gets the same deal. And then it came out Netflix was one that got special terms?

The sheer arrogance of Apple leaders is astounding. They think they are outright owed rent on anything that runs on an iPhone, iPad, etc. Apple thinks developers are nothing without Apple. Look at how snubbing developers has worked out for the Apple Vision Pro. It was already a niche device, but it's a ghost town.

>Internally, Phillip Schiller had advocated that Apple comply with the Injunction, but Tim Cook ignored Schiller and instead allowed Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri and his finance team to convince him otherwise. Cook chose poorly. The real evidence, detailed herein, more than meets the clear and convincing standard to find a violation.

Judging by tech, apple is right now in deep water due to the failure of delivering apple intelligence and a major drop in software quality.

Judging by political positioning, cook’s donation to trump’s inauguration didn’t sit well with the fanbase.

Now, it seems Cook is going for shady behavior against judges.

Maybe it’s time for a major change of leadership. Financially they might be ok, but one can’t avoid the feeling they’re burning the furniture to heat the house.

I hope he gets criminal charges. The amount of people who lie under oath and get away with it is unacceptable. Lets get all the politicians who lied under oath next as well.

In the words of a trial lawyer friend of mine, “Nobody in the history of the world has said, ‘You know what? The judge was right; I was an asshole.’

Definitely some of those vibes there. I’ve generally been on team apple for this case, and as Gruber notes, they largely won the case. Dunking on their power to set other contractual fees seems to have come back to bite them. That said, as a user, I strongly prefer to use Apple’s in-app payments — I was just buying a hearthstone purchase from Blizzard; on my laptop it popped up options like “Credit Card or PayPal?” I was like “nah” and loaded it up on my iPad to pay with Apple Pay.

Do I hate PayPal? No. Do I appreciate a payment service that shows all my recurring payments in one place, lets me cancel them, and feels generally very safe? Yes. I’m happy to have Apple compete on fair playing field for payments.

Summary: Oops.

Link to the court doc:

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cand.36...

> The testimony of Mr. Roman, Vice President of Finance, was replete with misdirection and outright lies. He even went so far as to testify that Apple did not look at comparables to estimate the costs of alternative payment solutions that developers would need to procure to facilitate linked-out purchases. (May 2024 Tr. 266:22–267:11 (Roman).)

> Mr. Roman did not stop there, however. He also testified that up until January 16, 2024, Apple had no idea what fee it would impose on linked-out purchases:

> Q. And I take it that Apple decided to impose a 27 percent fee on linked purchases prior to January 16, 2024, correct? A. The decision was made that day.

> Q. It’s your testimony that up until January 16, 2024, Apple had no idea what -- what fee it’s going to impose on linked purchases? A. That is correct

> (May 2024 Tr. 202:12–18 (Roman).) Another lie under oath: contemporaneous business

So was Roman incompetent or just kissing ass hoping to become the President of Finance

Is it a coincidence that this ruling comes near earnings (which is today)?

Also

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43852145 ("Apple violated antitrust ruling, judge finds (wsj.com)" — 336 comments)

No SNI:

https://web.archive.org/web/20250501083454if_/https://www.th...

Will the executive actually face an criminal charges? No they will not.

Ah, but will there be any actual financial penalties against Apple to address the revenue they received as a result of this? Or would developers have to start their own cases to attempt to recover anything?

Is there any reason to believe anyone will even get charged, let alone face trial, let alone convicted? And if so is there any reason to believe they won't be pardoned upon a conviction?

Wow that is pretty damning. I understand that they want to protect their revenue, but looks like they screwed up here.

My biggest takeaway out of this is Jim Jordan in the Senate trying to sneak through antitrust weakening.

From the "free market" party from a senator with at least some shame on the red aisle.

It really is open season for buying politicians.

John Gruber has a good summary of the ruling: https://daringfireball.net/2025/04/gonzales_rogers_apple_app....

My favourite part: "Unlike Mr. Maestri and Mr. Roman, Mr. Schiller sat through the entire underlying trial and actually read the entire 180-page decision. That Messrs. Maestri and Roman did neither, does not shield Apple of its knowledge (actual and constructive) of the Court’s findings."

> This is an injunction, not a negotiation. There are no do-overs once a party willfully disregards a court order.

...

> referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney for a criminal contempt investigation.

It's suddenly become a negotiation again.