Apple’s years-long App Store fight with Fortnite maker Epic Games is now headed to the Supreme Court. The justices agreed on Tuesday to hear Apple’s appeal of a contempt ruling that has already forced it to change how it handles payments outside the App Store. And the stakes just got a lot higher.
If you’ve purchased anything through an iPhone app recently, this affects you more than you’d think. At stake is whether Apple can keep charging app developers a commission on payments made outside the App Store, and that fee trickles down to what you pay for subscriptions and in-app purchases.
The App Store fee backstory in a nutshell
Almost six years ago, Epic filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple. Apple did mostly win that 2021 case, with the court noting that it did not violate antitrust law. But the judge overseeing it ordered Apple to loosen its anti-steering rules and allow developers to link out to alternate payment options in their apps.
Technically, Apple complied. Instead of its standard 15% to 30% App Store cut, the company started charging a 12% to 27% fee on external payments. But once you factored in what payment processors charge on top, developers were barely able to save any money.
How Apple ended up in contempt
Epic eventually accused Apple of “malicious compliance,” and that’s what landed Apple in contempt of court in April last year. The judge found that Apple had wilfully violated the original 2021 injunction and ordered it to stop charging fees for external payment links.
Apple appealed, and the Ninth Circuit upheld the judge’s contempt finding late last year. But it struck down the total fee ban, sending the commission question back to the district court to work out what “reasonable” means.
The SCOTUS justices had passed on this fight before, denying petitions from both Apple and Epic in 2024. This time, they said yes.
Apple says the lower courts punished it for violating the “spirit” of the ruling rather than its literal wording, calling it a “recipe for abuse.” Leaning on a recent Supreme Court precedent limiting nationwide injunctions, Apple also wants the Court to rule that the injunction should apply only to Epic and not extend to every developer.
The company also went as far as to tell the Court that the combination of those two rulings has “created an injunction that may reshape the global app marketplace.”
What happens next?
According to Reuters, the case will be going to the Supreme Court’s next term, which starts in October. A ruling is expected by next June, so the fight over what you pay for apps and subscriptions won’t be settled anytime soon.
Both sides are already staking out their turf. Epic, in a post on X, Epic said that it’s “heading to the Supreme Court where we’ll continue to fight against junk fees” Apple charges on third-party payments.
In a statement to Engadget, an Apple spokesperson said that “this is an important question of law and we are pleased the Supreme Court will hear our case.”
No matter which way the Court leans, the ruling could set the template for how much control Apple, or other platform gatekeepers, has over how you pay for the apps on your phone. A resolution could come next summer, and this is one App Store fight actually worth paying attention to.
