The iPhone maker is once again challenging a court ruling in the never-ending battle between Apple and Fortnite maker Epic Games over App Store fees. What is its latest tactic? Epic Games argued that its conflict with Apple over pricing should not lead to an injunction that applies to all developers publishing on the U.S. App Store, including other tech giants like Microsoft and Spotify, which are not involved in this particular case.
“Epic has never filed a class action lawsuit or attempted to show that relieving Epic was in any way necessary to enjoin Apple from acting against all other developers, such as Microsoft and Spotify, who have no ties to Epic,” Apple’s new petition says, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the lower court’s decision.
In the same document, Apple also objects to the Ninth Circuit’s civil contempt order regarding Apple’s compliance with the injunction. The court ruled that Apple must give developers the right to include links in their apps, links that can direct users to alternative payment options outside of Apple’s own systems, if they wish. Apple allowed this when necessary, but charged a fee for outside purchases, leading to the contempt order.
The Ninth Circuit said charging a 27% fee for outside payments defeats the purpose of allowing outside payments. But Apple is pushing back, citing specific legal grounds. The new discussion focuses on whether a federal court can hold a party in civil contempt for violating the “spirit” of the injunction if the injunction itself was written in a way that left it open to interpretation and said nothing about fees (i.e., it didn’t specifically prohibit fees on outside purchases, so technically Apple believes it did nothing wrong).
Apple appears to have unlimited funds to fund its legal battles. The company has been fighting the lawsuit, first filed by Epic in 2020, for more than five years, with no end in sight.
Epic Games criticized Apple’s move as “a last hurray to delay the conclusion of this lawsuit and avoid opening the door to payments competition for the benefit of consumers.”
The Supreme Court earlier this month rejected Apple’s request to suspend further proceedings until the court can decide whether sanctions are warranted.
This week, Epic Games announced that Fortnite is back on the App Store worldwide (excluding Australia) because they believe the courts are on their side and Apple’s pricing structure cannot be allowed to remain as it is.
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