Why the court ruling matters, what developers need to know now, and how to forge the best path forward.
In a landmark ruling on April 30, 2025, a U.S. court permanently barred Apple from forcing developers to use its in-app purchase system, closing a critical chapter in the long-running Epic Games vs. App Store legal saga. (Epic also sued Google in 2020, receiving a favorable ruling in October 2024.)
The court found Apple “willfully violated” a prior injunction from 2021, which stated that the tech giant could not prohibit developers from providing external payment options (through in-app links) as an alternative to Apple’s in-app purchase system, which carries a stiff 15-30% commission fee.
This change represents more than just a courtroom victory for Epic Games — it’s a paradigm shift for all consumer-facing iOS apps. Every company leveraging in-app transactions, not just those in the gaming industry, stands to benefit enormously.
In this blog, we break down the ruling’s implications, cut through the noise around Apple’s compliance strategy, and share a blueprint for how digital-first companies can respond – not react – to this new era of in-app monetization.
What Changed — And Why It Matters
In 2021, Apple was ordered by the court to allow app developers to link out to external payment options. In response, the company created a labyrinth of rules: a 27% fee on developers for external purchases, strict UI limitations, and friction-heavy warnings.
On April 30, 2025, the court ruled that these policies were in “blatant violation” of the court’s 2021 injunction. The new ruling:
- Bars Apple from enforcing in-app purchase exclusivity
- Prohibits fees on transactions made outside of the App Store
- Prevents UI or policy roadblocks on external payments
Developers can now embed external payment links or buttons without offering in-app purchases, and Apple cannot collect commission. For developers, this is a shift in economic power. For the first time, they can successfully bypass Apple’s 15-30% in-app fee structure, fully own the checkout experience, and reclaim profit margins while reducing payment friction.
The Opportunity for App Developers
While much of the public attention has focused on gaming, with Epic taking the lead, the real impact of this ruling extends much further. All iOS apps — from consumer SaaS tools to digital subscriptions and product marketplaces — now have a clear path to bypass Apple’s fees and increase profitability.
However, implementing external payments isn’t as simple as flipping a switch. Developers must consider tax/VAT compliance, PCI security standards, fraud protection, invoicing, and other backend processes that Apple previously managed.
That’s where third-party Merchants of Record (MoRs) come in. Through the MoR model, an app developer can offload all the complexities of payments previously handled by Apple to a partner uniquely qualified to manage not just transactions, but a host of other ecommerce functions.
While Apple’s in-app payment system technically acts as MoR (in that Apple resells digital goods and assumes liability for each transaction), it forces exclusivity and limits flexibility. Many developers are now turning to MoR service providers that offer greater control, operational resilience, and support for off-platform payment strategies.
How MoR Service Providers Enable External Payments on iOS
With this policy shift, third-party MoRs can extend the same services to app developers that they’ve historically provided for web-based transactions by integrating directly into iOS flows as an external payment solution.
MoRs provide a fast, compliant way to take advantage of Apple’s new policies. Developers can embed a "Buy" or "Subscribe" button directly within their app interface, linking users to a mobile-optimized checkout page that lives outside the App Store ecosystem. And since the transaction is handled outside that ecosystem, Apple cannot charge its 15-30% in-app commission, and is further barred from levying a 27% external transaction fee.
Apple’s updated policy guidelines confirm that external links and purchases are now permitted, and app developers are already beginning to implement them. A best-in-class MoR solution, meanwhile, can help ecommerce teams deploy this flow in a matter of hours, not weeks.
A Fictional Use Case: External Checkout in Action
To illustrate how this works in practice, imagine an app offering a premium software subscription. Here’s how the post-ruling user journey might look with a Merchant of Record like Cleverbridge:
- User installs the app from the App Store.
- Inside the app, the user taps on a “Go Premium” button.
- That button opens a mobile-optimized checkout page in their preferred browser.
- The page supports Apple Pay, local wallets, and global payment options.
- The user completes the transaction securely. Apple takes no cut.
- The MoR processes the transaction, handles taxes, fraud protection, and issues a receipt.
- The app instantly reflects the user’s new subscription status through backend system notifications about the completed transaction.
This same pattern can be applied to any ecommerce transaction — subscription signups, one-time purchases, cross-sells, or add-ons. This is the kind of seamless, scalable, and compliant experience Cleverbridge enables — without rebuilding your app or increasing your team’s workload.
Bottom Line
Apple didn’t just lose a court battle — it lost its grip on one of the most lucrative walled gardens in tech. The ruling (currently under appeal) represents a broader reckoning of how digital platforms monetize access and how much control developers have over their own customers’ user experience.
But capitalizing on that opportunity means acting fast. Many developers are still weighing their options. The ones who move now — with the right infrastructure — will be the ones who scale fastest, retain more margin, and deepen customer relationships.
If you're looking to optimize your iOS sales strategy, let’s talk. Reach out to Cleverbridge today, and unlock the true potential of omni-channel ecommerce.
