The U.S. Supreme Court today rejected Apple’s request that would have temporarily stayed Epic Games’ case returning to district court for proceedings to calculate the amount of commission it can charge for non-App Store transactions. Here are the details.
A little context
Earlier this week, Apple filed a petition with the Supreme Court seeking a stay of the Ninth Circuit’s mandate, which sends the Epic Games case back to the district court.
In its filing, Apple argued that in 2025 it was wrongly found in contempt of a 2021 injunction related to non-App Store purchases. At the time, Apple charged a 27% commission on non-App Store purchases, since the 2021 court ruling did not clarify whether Apple could charge such commissions.
According to the decision, as Apple outlined in its request to the Supreme Court:
Apple Inc. and its officers, agents, servants, employees, and anyone in active consultation or participation with them (“Apple”), are hereby prohibited and permanently enjoined from developers (i) including in their applications and metadata any buttons, external links or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms, in addition to in-app purchases and (ii) from communicating with customers through touchpoints voluntarily obtained from customers through account registration in the application.
When Apple took the case to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the court ruled that Apple was allowed to charge a fee, leaving it up to the district court to determine the amount.
That led to this week’s petition, in which Apple asked the Supreme Court to stay the case’s referral to the district court, based on arguments including:
- The contempt designation is undeserved because the 2021 injunction mentions nothing about App Store fees;
- The fact that this designation of unjustified contempt in the record unfairly harms his position in the removal proceedings;
- The injunction wrongly extends beyond Epic Games to all developers on the US App Store storefront;
Apple added that with “regulators around the world… looking into this matter to determine what commission rate Apple should be allowed to charge,” an alleged procedural misstep or unfair ruling against it would harm the company’s chances of getting a fair trial elsewhere.
This argument was immediately pointed to by Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney as being, as he put it, confirmation that “Apple’s 5 years of blocking tactics in the US court system – leading to a contempt of court finding against them and a criminal referral for perjury – are clearly aimed at blocking global support for developers and consumers.” »
Back to today
Today, the United States Supreme Court denied Apple’s request to stay the case’s remand to the district court, while Apple prepares a formal request for the Supreme Court to review the case.
As reported Reuters:
Justice Elena Kagan, speaking for the court, refused to stay a decision by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that found Apple in contempt in the Epic lawsuit challenging App Store fees.
The court’s decision came after Epic Games filed a response opposing Apple’s request earlier today, in which it argued that Apple had not demonstrated irreparable harm, since participating in removal proceedings while seeking review from the Supreme Court did not warrant a stay.
Epic also argued that further delaying the case would continue to harm developers and consumers by leaving uncertainty about the commission Apple can charge on related purchases, an argument the company also made to the Ninth Circuit in response to Apple’s request to stay the ruling.
Given the current situation, the way is clear for the case to return to U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, with proceedings regarding Apple’s non-App Store commission expected to resume as soon as possible.
For now, Apple still cannot charge commissions on related purchases until the district court approves a new rate. The company should, however, still ask the Supreme Court to take up the dispute.
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