After South Korea formally amended the law in a targeted manner for the first time in the world, the decision of the US federal court dealt a heavy blow to the "Apple Inc tax" of App Store, a profit-making tool in Apple Inc's app store.

On Friday, 10th US Eastern time, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, a judge of the Federal Court in Oakland, California, who accepted the antitrust case of game "Fortnite" developer Epic Games v. Apple Inc, issued an injunction against Apple Inc, requiring Apple Inc not to prohibit App developers from providing links and other means of communication that guide users to choose internal purchase methods other than Apple Inc, and asked Apple Inc to pay at least $4 million as compensation for breach of contract.

Rogers ruled that Apple Inc prevented consumers from getting cheaper prices, which was anti-competitive behavior harmful to consumers, but she did not decide that Apple Inc App Store's policy violated the anti-monopoly law, as Epic hoped. Rogers said:

The court ruled that Apple Inc's reverse guidance clause concealed important information from consumers and illegally strangled consumers' choices. Combined with Apple Inc's early anti-monopoly violations, these anti-guidance provisions are anti-competitive, and it is necessary to ensure nationwide remedial measures to eradicate these provisions. "

"in view of the trial records, no matter according to the antitrust laws of the federal government or the state government, the court could not finally rule that Apple Inc belongs to the monopolist."

Apple Inc later said that the court confirmed what we have always known: App Store did not violate the anti-monopoly law, and the court acknowledged that Apple Inc's success was not illegal. Apple Inc believes that customers and developers will choose Apple Inc because Apple Inc's products and services are the best in the world.

After the verdict, Apple Inc shares, which had risen more than 0.9 per cent at the beginning of the day, plunged in early trading on Friday and fell quickly. At the end of the morning trading, they fell nearly 3.5 per cent, narrowed the decline to less than 3 per cent in midday and finally closed down 3.3 per cent, the biggest closing decline since May 4 this year, and the market value lost more than $80 billion a day.

While Apple Inc fell, companies with third-party payment intentions rose.

Social game developer Zynga jumped in trading, rising from less than 0.5% to more than 8% in less than half an hour. At one point, it was up nearly 10% at midday, closing up more than 6%. Roblox, the game platform that had fallen nearly 2 per cent and 3 per cent in early trading, and online dating App and match, which rose in midday trading, were up more than 4.7 per cent and 8.7 per cent respectively, closing up about 1.8 per cent and 4.2 per cent, respectively. Spotify, a music streaming platform that has fallen in the short term, also shot up, rising more than 3.6 per cent at one point to close at 0.6 per cent at midday.

In addition, Blue Hat Interactive Entertainment Technology Interactive Entertainment Technology, a Chinese maker of AR interactive entertainment games and toys, closed up about 7.8%, audio and video creation, distribution and monetization company AVID rose more than 2.1%, massively multiplayer online role-playing game publishers Activision Blizzard (ATVI) and EA (EA) rose about 2.0%, and game interactive platform Roblox (RBLX) rose about 1.8%. Take-Two interactive software (TTWO), a developer, publisher and seller of consumer interactive entertainment, fell about 2 per cent.

App Store's profiteering business is at stake for more than $20 billion a year.

Although Apple Inc did not say whether to appeal against the injunction, the verdict issued by Rogers already means that Apple Inc App Store's business of more than $20 billion a year could shrink.

Apple Inc has always charged developers a commission of up to 30 per cent on each transaction and forced the use of an internal payment system to collect some of the transaction fees. Analysts estimate that App Store earns more than $20bn a year from developers, with a profit margin of more than 75 per cent.

Rogers did not ask Apple Inc to reduce the 30 per cent cut, but her judgment wrote that Apple Inc did not fully justify the 30 per cent rate, but only argued that the commission should be used to pay developers to use the App Store platform, license Apple Inc's knowledge products and obtain Apple Inc's users. These only prove that the draw is reasonable, not 30% of itself.

Global litigation loses an important game.

Friday's verdict also means that Apple Inc lost an important game in the year-long showdown between the hottest App and the largest App platform court.

In August last year, Epic introduced a new internal purchase mechanism for the popular game "Fortnite" to avoid Apple Inc getting 30 per cent of the income from App. Apple Inc responded quickly, saying that Epic Games violated App Store regulations and quickly removed "Fortnite" from the shelves. Epic then sued Apple Inc, arguing that Apple Inc's two practices-the 30% cut and the control over users downloading App to iPhone-constituted anti-competitive behavior.

In addition to the US, Epic has also filed lawsuits against Apple Inc in the European Union, the UK and Australia, and Epic is also suing Alphabet Inc-CL C for payment restrictions on App store Google Play.

According to California law, Apple Inc is engaged in anti-competitive activities, so it is necessary to modify the policy of App Store and relax the restrictions on domestic purchase of App. The relevant prohibition order will come into effect in December this year, so this year Apple Inc will have to make concessions to the App income cut, which is known as "Apple Inc tax".

Media commented that Friday's California court ruling dealt a relentless blow to technology giants and will help cases against giants such as Apple Inc, Alphabet Inc-CL C, Amazon.Com Inc and Facebook Inc.

Apple Inc's major concessions are not enough.

Apple Inc has made major concessions after South Korea's recent move.

Last TuesdayThe Korean National Assembly passes the bill.Operators of App stores such as Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc-CL C are prohibited from forcing App developers to use their designated payment systems. Companies that violate the rules could be fined up to 3 per cent of their income in South Korea by regulators. South Korea thus became the first country in the world to impose restrictions on the payment policies of Alphabet Inc-CL C and Apple Inc.

Last Thursday, two days later, Apple Inc announced the update of App Store policy.Allow some App to bypass App Store for payment。

Under the new policy, Reader App can add an intra-App link so that users can jump to external websites to sign up and pay a fee, a change that applies to applications such as magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music and video and will be implemented worldwide early next year.

Epic said earlier this week that it had asked Apple Inc to restore Epic's "Fortnite" developer account and hoped to re-release the iOS version of "Fortnite" in South Korea, providing both Epic third-party payment and Apple Inc payment in accordance with South Korean law.

Epic may act accordingly after the California court's decision.