TOP APPLE EXEC CONCEDES HE HAD DOUBTS ABOUT APP STORE FEES IMPOSED ON ALTERNATIVE PAYMENT OPTIONS

Longtime Apple executive Phil Schiller this week conceded he initially opposed fees that the iPhone maker charges for in app-transactions processed outside its own payment system because he feared violating a court-ordered mandate designed to create more competition.

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Schiller, who oversees Apple's lucrative App Store for iPhones, made the admission during three hours of testimony in the same Oakland federal courtroom where he last appeared on the witness stand nearly nine months ago as part of a long-running legal battle with Epic Games, the maker of the popular Fortnite video game.

Epic began the showdown four and half years ago when it first filed an antitrust lawsuit alleging that Apple had built an illegal monopoly around its popular App Store that makes billions of dollars annually from a then-exclusive payment system that collects commissions ranging from 15% to 30% on inapp commerce.

Although U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers rejected the monopoly claims, she ordered Apple to lower the barriers protecting its previously exclusive payment system for inapp digital transactions and allow developers to display links to alternative options.

After spending more than two years trying to overturn Rogers' order paving the way for alternative payment links to appear in iPhone app, Apple exhausted all its appeals 13 months ago and finally opened the door for other options.