In Apple’s seemingly never-ending lawsuit with Fortnite developer Epic Games over App Store supplies, the iPhone maker is once again fighting a court ruling. His latest tactic? That said, Epic Games’ beef with Apple over its fee structure shouldn’t result in an injunction that applies to all developers who publish on the US App Store, including other tech giants like Microsoft and Spotify, which weren’t part of that particular lawsuit.
“Epic has never brought a class action and never sought to show that enforcing Apple’s conduct against all other developers — such as Microsoft or Spotify, who have nothing to do with Epic — was somehow necessary to provide relief to Epic,” says Apple’s new filing, which asks the US Supreme Court to review the lower court’s decision.
In the same filing, Apple also argues for the Ninth Circuit’s civil contempt of Apple’s compliance with the order. The court had ruled that Apple must give developers the right to include links in their apps — links that could direct users to alternative payment options outside Apple’s system — if they choose. Apple allowed this as required, but charged fees in those outside markets, leading to the contempt order.
The Ninth Circuit said charging 27% fees on foreign payments defeated the purpose of allowing them — which, well, it did. However, Apple is backing down for specific legal reasons. His new argument centers on whether a federal court can hold a party in civil contempt for violating the “spirit” of an order when the order itself was worded in a way that left room for interpretation and said nothing about procurement (i.e., did not specifically forbid charges for foreign purchases, so technicallyApple believes it did nothing wrong).
Apple has a seemingly infinite amount of money to fund its legal battles. The company has been fighting Epic’s original 2020 lawsuit for more than five years now with no end in sight.
Epic Games criticized Apple’s latest move as “one last Hail Mary to delay the conclusion of this case and avoid opening the floodgates to payments competition for the benefit of consumers.”
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court rejected Apple’s request for a stay additional procedures until the court can determine whether the sanctions were justified.
This week, Epic Games was announced that Fortnite is back on the App Store worldwide (except Australia) because he believes the court is on his side and won’t allow Apple’s fee structure to remain as it is.
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