Apple App Store developers who thought they’d won a court battle against the tech giant, only to be thwarted a day later, have hit out at the company afresh.

And they have been joined by a coalition of 70 companies opposed to Apple’s App Store practices. New court action looks imminent.

The saga began when Fortnite developer Epic Games took Apple to court for ejecting it from the App Store because the game maker linked to its own payment system rather than Apple’s.

Apple’s practice of requiring all payments take place through its App Store didn’t breach anti-trust law, but it was found to breach California’s Unfair Competition law.

In response to court decisions against it, Apple has levied a massive surcharge on links from apps to a private payment system of up to 27 percent, reinstating most of its lucrative commission revenue stream.

Developers who thought they’d won the day are outraged.

Posting on X (Twitter), Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said the company would contest “Apple’s bad-faith compliance plan” in the US District Court.

Mr Sweeney said Apple was not only imposing a “27 percent tax”, it was putting obstacles in the way of users wanting to use a developer’s payment system rather than Apple’s.

“Apple requires developers to open a generic web browser session, forcing the user to log in to the developer’s web site again, to make a purchase,” Mr Sweeney says. “Users will have to search all over again for the digital item they wanted to buy.”

He said Apple was also employing scare tactics, telling users who try to pay on the developer’s site that they are “not responsible for the privacy or security of purchases made on the web.”

Spotify says Apple’s action is outrageous and “flies in the face of the court’s efforts to enable greater competition and user choice”.  It says Apple will stop at nothing to protect the profits it exacts on the backs of developers and consumers.

Spotify warns that if Apple continues on this route, its action will be prohibited under the European Union’s Digital Markets Act. As such, it could be illegal in the EU which will in turn force Apple to have a rethink.

Epic Games and Spotify are part of “The Coalition for App Fairness” formed in 2020 to oppose Apple’s App Store policies. The coalition also includes Blockchain, European Publishers Council, ProtonMail, News Media Europe and Tileand has grown from 13 to 70 members since launching,

In a statement posted on its website, the coalition’s executive director, Rick VanMeter, said Apple’s new 27 percent commission on payments “defies the intention of the District Court’s injunction and undermines competition”.

“These changes do nothing to enhance consumer choice, lower prices lower prices for in-app purchases or inject competition into Apple’s walled garden. It is precisely this type of abusive, monopolistic behaviour that makes it imperative for Congress to pass the Open App Markets Act.”

However, by taking further court action, these companies face the prospect of another round of multiple court cases with large legal costs that could drag on for months or years. It’s a situation that favours Apple who has the deepest pockets of any company on the planet.