GoKawiilApple today filed a request with the Supreme Court in an attempt to reverse key lower court rulings over the App Store injunction in its long-running legal battle with Epic Games. Here are the details.
A bit of background
If you’ve been following the Epic Games versus Apple saga, you know the dispute began in 2020, when Epic used a server-side update to bypass Apple’s In-App Purchase (IAP) system inside Fortnite after the app had already passed App Review.
Apple immediately removed the game from the App Store. Epic immediately sued.
Throughout the many twists and turns of the case, the courts rejected Epic’s broader antitrust claims and largely upheld Apple’s App Store model.
However, Epic did win on one point: in 2021, the court said Apple could no longer block developers from directing users to alternative payment options outside Apple’s IAP system.
Apple changed its rules to allow external links, but also imposed new restrictions and fees on them. Epic challenged that response, and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California found Apple in contempt, concluding that the company had not complied with the original injunction.
Apple appealed, and the Ninth Circuit gave the company a partial win. It reversed the district court’s outright ban on any commission, but still upheld the underlying contempt finding against Apple. The court then sent the case back to the District Court to determine what commission Apple can charge on purchases made outside the App Store.
Apple then asked the Supreme Court to pause this phase while it prepared a broader appeal. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court rejected that stay request, meaning the case could continue moving forward in the District Court. A few days ago, Apple and Epic made a joint filing outlining the schedule for these proceedings.
All of that said, Apple today filed its broader request with the Supreme Court.
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