Apple created an iconic commercial for the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. The punchline: “You’ll see why 1984 won’t be like 1984”. 40 years later, Apple has become Oceania.

A few weeks ago, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers made a landmark ruling in the Epic v. Apple case started in August 2020. After a trial, Judge Rogers issued the first ruling in September 2021. Apple won 9 of the 10 counts, but the court found Apple’s prohibition on linking to web for “outside the app” payments was anticompetitive and issued an injunction. Apple appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, who declined to take up the case. Meanwhile Apple continued with what many have labeled malicious compliance. There is an extensive record in this case: the April 30 order is the 1,508th item in the docket. This latest ruling is not a rushed one, the Judge has had enough. These are the first two sentences or the order:

For the reasons set forth herein, the Court FINDS Apple in willful violation of this Court’s 2021 Injunction which issued to restrain and prohibit Apple’s anticompetitive conduct and anticompetitive pricing. Apple’s continued attempts to interfere with competition will not be tolerated.

It gets worse:

In stark contrast to Apple’s initial in-court testimony, contemporaneous business documents reveal that Apple knew exactly what it was doing and at every turn chose the most anticompetitive option. To hide the truth, Vice-President of Finance, Alex Roman, outright lied under oath. 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. The Court refers the matter to the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California to investigate whether criminal contempt proceedings are appropriate.

This is an injunction, not a negotiation. There are no do-overs once a party willfully disregards a court order. Time is of the essence. The Court will not tolerate further delays. As previously ordered, Apple will not impede competition. The Court enjoins Apple from implementing its new anticompetitive acts to avoid compliance with the Injunction. Effective immediately Apple will no longer impede developers’ ability to communicate with users nor will they levy or impose a new commission on off-app purchases.

And here’s her closer:

Apple willfully chose not to comply with this Court’s Injunction. It did so with the express intent to create new anticompetitive barriers which would, by design and in effect, maintain a valued revenue stream; a revenue stream previously found to be anticompetitive. That it thought this Court would tolerate such insubordination was a gross miscalculation. As always, the cover- up made it worse. For this Court, there is no second bite at the apple.

It has taken years, but the European Digital Markets Act combined with this ruling in the United States has finally opened the gate to more meaningful competition in Apple’s walled garden. The costs have been staggering, as you might expect when going up against one of the most valueable companies in the world, who also has an enormous cash reserve. In the May 6 episode of his Channels podcast, Peter Kafka interviewed Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games. Tim says they spent more than $100 million in legal feeds on Epic vs Apple.

Naturally Apple is appealing this recent order, but I think it’s unlikely to be successful. Meanwhile, they are finally complying with the injuction issued way back in 2021. Amazon added a “Get Book” to the Kindle app. Spotify now shows links in their app to buy various subscription plans on the web. Patreon updated their app to allow fans to subscribe on the web, bypassing Apple’s 30% fee.

The gate is open, let’s tear down this wall.