Court docs show Apple offered Hulu and some other “whitelisted developers” special access to App Store APIs, like the cancel/refund API
Today is the fourth day of the Epic Games v. Apple legal battle, and documents shared in the trial continue to give us insight into the App Store and Apple's business practices.
MacRumorsJuli Clover
Context & Ripple Effects
The Epic litigation had already surfaced Apple's internal deliberations over fees for paid TV and streaming channels and competing accounts of whether Epic sought preferential terms. The newly disclosed API access adds a technical dimension to that scrutiny: some developers received capabilities unavailable to the broader developer base.
Apple's App Store governance is therefore being examined not only through its published rules, but through the exceptions it made for selected partners such as Hulu.
First-order effects
Hulu and the other whitelisted developers could handle cancellation or refund-related flows through privileged App Store APIs, while developers without that access had to operate without the same tooling.
Apple must account for how those API exceptions were granted as trial documents test whether App Store treatment was consistently available to developers.
Other subscription and streaming developers have a stronger basis to seek comparable API access or clearer eligibility rules, putting pressure on Apple to distinguish partner-specific arrangements from generally available platform features.
Third-order effects
If selective API access becomes a recurring point of contention, platform governance will be judged increasingly by whether technical privileges have transparent, repeatable access criteria rather than by published store rules alone.
The dispute points toward API availability becoming part of the broader competition debate around platform gatekeepers: control over developer tools can shape commercial options as materially as store terms can.
The trend: App-store competition scrutiny is widening from payment and distribution rules to the discretionary allocation of developer-facing platform capabilities.
Here's are the documents where Apple employees talks about white-listing companies like Hulu for privelaged use of App Store APIs, like the cancel/refund API. https://twitter.com/...
Just to be clear, the argument here is that experiences *inside* Roblox (which IIRC there are actual game studios devoted to building) are not games, because otherwise Roblox could be arguably similar to the Epic Games Store in being a store inside the App Store.
Forrest is asking Fischer about an Oct 2018 email. “Hulu is part of the set of whitelisted developers with access to subscription cancel/refund API.” Fischer acknowledges that “whitelisted developers” have access to some APIs and features that other developers don't
Some discussion in court about Apple buying SourceDNA, a startup that automated checking apps for malware. Here is an Apple director's email making the case to buy them. I believe this is an 2016 Apple acquisition that went unreported until this trial (one of many.) https://twitt…
So now we know... “Hulu is part of the set of whitelisted developers with access to subscription cancel/refund API.” Sure hope Apple exposes that to the rest of us at some point. Google Play allows developers to trigger cancellations and it's great for customer support. https://t…
This is a clever way to make a blanket statement that gives you plausible deniability when accused of unfair treatment. “We were just testing X with [Developer] before we made it available to everyone!” Even if it takes years, and years 😒 https://twitter.com/...
The “what is a game” debate apparently having a lot of real world stakes in this trial. My dumb understanding here is Apple is trying to say that user-created content in Roblox don't count as games, because to do so would undermine their case against Epic? https://twitter.com/...
For anybody interested in this, these are the APIs that Apple announced at last years WWDC stating that they're available “now”. Spoiler: they are absolutely not yet available to developers in any way https://twitter.com/...
I know so many kind, amazing people at Apple that have been so helpful to me over the years. But I think it's lost on Apple institutionally just how disfuncional it's relationship with developers really is. How much we fear App Review. How much we fear speaking out.
App Store chief says no developer receives a special break and that all App Store rules are applied equally. Amazon would beg to differ. https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...
I don't know if Epic can or should win here — it's pretty messy! But it is more abundantly clear than ever that Apple puts a lot of time into making every dollar that flows through the iPhone also flow through Apple.
“In this particular case, it was something we were testing with a few companies to see how this feature would perform with the intention if it performed well we would roll it out to all developers.”
On an episode of the @SubClubHQ podcast, @ncsh commented how Salesforce runs its developer platform as a “benevolent dictator”. That's been rattling around in my head since the moment he said it. In contrast, Apple comes across a bit more... Machiavellian. https://castro.fm/... h…
Epic vs Apple continues to reveal how deeply in the weeds of specific app functionality Apple will get when it suits its interests — and that they have the levers to do it. https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Over dinner I told my wife one of my tweets ended up in a court case against Apple. Her first reaction, without even knowing what it said: “Is Apple going to retaliate?!” So yeah, for almost 13 years of making a living on the App Store, we've lived in fear of Apple.
„What this whole email saga is illustrative of is how Apple's policies for developers seem to have exceptions." i am literally shocked wow much surprise nobody could have guessed that despite Apple lying about that publicly https://www.theverge.com/...