During its legal battle against Apple, Epic has won the backing of a knitting-related firm, Knitrino. Knitrino took issue with how Apple handled App Store regulations, which made releasing their app more difficult than anticipated.
After a year-long trial, Apple’s case against Epic has reached the post-trial stage, with Epic garnering backing from a wide range of organisations in its attempt to overturn a court’s decision on numerous App Store standards. According to an article published on Sunday, Epic had an ally in the form of knitters, who were previously unknown to the company.
One of the firms who signed an amicus brief in favour of Epic in November 2021 is the Seattle-based company Knitrino, which also sent a “friend of the court” brief to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in January 2022. Apple’s practises are being criticised by a number of businesses, including a consortium of 34 US states and Microsoft.
In an article published by the Seattle Times, the sisters Andrea Cull and Alison Yates describe how they developed Knitrino, an app that provides knitting designs and guidance to knitters. Having completed the development of the software, the business submitted it for approval to both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store; however, only Google accepted the app with no issues.
A restriction prohibiting the selling of both physical and digital items via Apple’s in-app payment mechanism was cited as the reason for the rejection. The review board rejected Knitrino’s appeal in 19 minutes, despite the fact that the company had been working on it for days and had argued with Apple, with the latter seeming to copy and paste sections of policy in answer to questions.
As Yates described it, “the sensation we got while going through this was like striking a brick wall and not being able to see the brick wall.” “Unfortunately, I am unable to determine the height of this wall. I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to go a few kilometres in that direction and get away from the problem. Our only option was to fumble about in the dark.”
As a result of a lack of alternatives and the inability to exert control over the situation, Yates was also dissatisfied. In the event that they are the approver and the appeals court, and if they say no, we are unable to reach our clients via a different app store.
Knitrino was eventually accepted for the App Store, but the reason for the change in status is still a mystery to the firm.
Knitrino has already begun selling “Unravel Apple” stickers, following in the footsteps of Epic Games, because of concern that its support of Epic Games may result in punishment from Apple. “Unravel Apple” stickers are available for purchase here.
The capacity to “use the type of authority that allows them to declare whether or not we can go into business, for something so arbitrary,” according to Yates, is one of Apple’s greatest assets. Yates says that even though the app has made it to the App Store, he’d “love to have an alternative.”
A response to Epic’s appeal is due in March, with oral arguments scheduled for the spring or summer months after that.