The case between Apple and Epic has been going on for a while now. For the most part, Epic walked away the winner, with the rulings forcing Apple to make some pretty big changes to its App Store, how it handles payments, and more. However, it looks like it isn’t quite done and dusted yet, as the US Supreme Court has agreed to hear Apple appeal of contempt in the Epic Games lawsuit.
Supreme Court to hear Apple appeal its contempt case in Epic lawsuit
The Apple Epic Supreme Court fight got a new chapter on Tuesday. The court announced that they will review a lower court’s contempt ruling against Apple. That ruling goes back to a 2021 injunction from US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. She ordered Apple to let developers add links inside their apps that send users to outside payment options. Apple did add those links. But it also charged a 27% fee on anything purchased through them. This led to Judge Rogers saying that the fee broke the spirit of her order.
Unsurprisingly, Apple sees it differently. The company argued a judge can’t hold you in contempt unless the original order specifically banned what you did. Apple says this particular order never said a word about commissions. The justices agreed to hear that argument as part of the broader Apple Epic Supreme Court case.
A little bit of history
This lawsuit dates back to 2020, when Epic snuck its own payment system into Fortnite to dodge Apple’s cut. Apple yanked the game. Epic sued, and years of court dates followed. Unfortunately, Epic didn’t win everything. A judge also found that Apple wasn’t running an illegal monopoly. However, Epic did convince the court that blocking outside payment links was anticompetitive. That’s what Apple’s been fighting ever since.
So while Epic didn’t exactly have a clean win, the bigger win here is for the industry as a whole. As a result of the lawsuit, Apple has since had to allow developers to inform its users of cheaper and off-platform payment methods. They also had to allow developers to link to external stores for alternative payment processing.
Given Apple’s famed walled garden approach, these changes are a huge win for developers.
The post Apple Is Appealing Its Contempt Charge in the Epic Games Case, and the Supreme Court Will Hear It appeared first on Android Headlines.
​Â
