I believe the company saying they were threatened over one as large as Apple, where one group could have said "yes we're threatening you with this" and another

I believe the company saying they were threatened over one as large as Apple, where one group could have said "yes we're threatening you with this" and another disparate group could say "we would never do that" - Actually looking at other sources it's very clear that is exactly what happened: - Epic Games doesn't just tweet they're being threatened with termination, they start updating all documentation on accounts to reflect this fact with a specific termination date - Verge reaches out, gets an immediate reply from Apple that they'd never do this - Epic Games gets an indefinite extension on the removal. - Verge reaches out to Apple about Epic's claims that they got an extension on a ban... no reply. Most likely the "lower level" developer relations people have the power to terminate access to the program, and did threaten Epic with it Higher level legal/strategy dealing with the fact this is a matter about to enter court and in the public spotlight step in and clarify this is not a case where the lower level relations people should terminate their access. Once the fact Epic had in fact been threatened with termination bubbled up, they stop replying. The problem is very much, most people never get that higher-level involvement. The fact these lower level development relationship people are showing it's a lever they were at some point willing to pull is more than a little worrying...