Apple Judge Calls New App Store Payment Rule ‘Non-Competitive’

The federal judge who will decide whether Apple Inc. is complying with an antitrust ruling over its out-of-app payment program chastised a top executive Wednesday, saying the company’s rules appear to “maintain the non-competitive environment” in its App Store.

“You are creating a system for the lowest common denominator which harms those who do it properly to your benefit,” US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said at a court hearing in Oakland, California, over Apple’s compliance with a 2021 court order. “All this does is maintain the non-competitive environment that exists.”

“I’m not trying to do this to our benefit,” ...