A US judge has referred Apple for possible criminal contempt after finding that the company “willfully violated” the court order in the Epic Games case

A US judge accused a key executive of lying under testimony and found that Apple violated an injunction in the Epic Games lawsuit.

The case has been referred for possible criminal contempt charges after a US federal judge accused Apple of willfully disobeying a court order in its ongoing legal dispute with Epic Games. In an attempt to weaken the tech giant’s hold on in-app purchases, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers banned Apple from engaging in anti-competitive behavior in 2021. This landmark ruling came over three years later.

Judge Gonzalez Rogers stated in a harsh ruling on Wednesday that Apple purposefully avoided the court’s injunction, which was meant to let developers to refer consumers to payment systems run by other parties other than Apple’s App Store. The court determined that the new costs and restrictions Apple imposed, such as a 27% charge on off-app transactions, undermined the text and spirit of the decision.

According to the judge, who cited internal papers, “Apple knew exactly what it was doing and at every turn chose the most anticompetitive option.” In order to comply with the verdict, she said, Apple CEO Tim Cook disregarded internal advice, and Alex Roman, the company’s vice-president of finance, “outright lied under oath.”

A unusual and significant step forward in a corporate dispute, the court has now sent the matter to the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California to decide whether Apple should be charged with criminal contempt.

Apple defended its actions in response. “We vehemently oppose the ruling. A corporate representative stated late Wednesday, “We will appeal and we will follow the court’s order.

Epic Games, the business behind Fortnite, filed the initial lawsuit, claiming that Apple had a monopoly on its app store and contesting its 15–30% in-app purchase commission. On social media, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney celebrated the recent decision and offered a global truce: Epic would cease all legal action and bring Fortnite back to Apple’s App Stores everywhere provided Apple expanded its compliance procedures globally.

“There are no fees for online transactions,” Sweeney wrote. “The Apple Tax is a lost cause.”