Apple is once again pushing back in its long-running legal battle with Fortnite maker Epic Games over App Store commissions.
This time, the iPhone maker is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lower court ruling, arguing that Epic’s dispute with Apple should not result in an injunction that affects every developer on the U.S. App Store.
In its latest petition, Apple says Epic never filed a class action and never proved that restrictions on Apple’s conduct should apply to other developers, such as Microsoft or Spotify, which were not part of the lawsuit. Apple argues that any court-ordered relief should be limited to Epic, rather than extended across the entire App Store ecosystem.
Apple is also challenging a civil contempt order from the Ninth Circuit over how it handled the court’s earlier injunction. The court had required Apple to allow developers to include links inside their apps that direct users to alternative payment options outside Apple’s own payment system. Apple allowed those links, but still charged fees on purchases made through them, which led the court to accuse the company of undermining the order.
The Ninth Circuit said Apple’s 27% fee on outside payments weakened the purpose of letting developers send users to alternative payment systems. Apple, however, is now arguing that the injunction did not clearly ban such commissions. According to Apple, a company should not be held in civil contempt for violating the “spirit” of an order when the wording itself left room for interpretation.
The legal fight has been going on since Epic first sued Apple in 2020 after Fortnite was removed from the App Store. More than five years later, the dispute over Apple’s payment rules and App Store control still has no clear end in sight.
Epic criticized Apple’s latest move, calling it a final attempt to delay the case and avoid opening the door to more payment competition for consumers. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court also rejected Apple’s request to pause additional proceedings while it considered whether the sanctions against Apple were justified.
Meanwhile, Epic recently announced that Fortnite is back on the App Store globally, except in Australia. The company says it believes the court is on its side and expects Apple’s current fee structure to face further legal pressure.
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