Apple strikes to take its App Store combat again to the Supreme Court

Apple is getting ready to take its App Store combat with Epic Games again to the Supreme Court. In a new filing, the iPhone maker mentioned it plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to assessment one other side of this long-running case over App Store charges.

In the meantime, Apple sought to pause the appeals court docket’s ruling limiting the way it can cost for exterior funds. On Monday, April 6, the court docket granted Apple’s movement, and Epic Games instantly challenged it.

As a refresher, Apple has been in a multi-year authorized battle towards Fortnite maker Epic Games after the sport maker added exterior funds in its app to bypass Apple’s App Store charges in 2020. Apple largely gained the case in 2021 because the court docket dominated that Apple was not a monopoly. However, the decide specified that Apple needed to permit builders to hyperlink to exterior cost choices.

The tech big appealed that call as much as the Supreme Court, which declined to listen to the case, permitting the Ninth Circuit Court’s authentic ruling to face. As a end result, Apple started permitting exterior funds, but it surely charged builders utilizing their very own cost programs a 27% fee on these purchases — solely a slight low cost from Apple’s traditional 30% price. (Meanwhile, Google, dealing with the same case, settled with Epic Games final month, and dropped its Play Store commissions to twenty%.)

Epic Games argued that such a price was not compliant with the court docket order; they and different builders additionally weren’t saving any cash, as cost processing has charges of its personal.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California agreed with Epic, discovering Apple in contempt. That determination was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in December 2025. The appeals court docket said that Apple’s 27% price on exterior funds successfully defeated the aim of permitting them, but it surely didn’t recommend a brand new price. That determination is headed again to a decrease court docket to determine. (Apple requested for a rehearing on this determination, however its request was denied in March 2026.)

As Apple now has no extra choices throughout the Ninth Circuit, it plans to take its case to the Supreme Court.

If the Supreme Court agrees to listen to the case, Apple is predicted to problem the authorized requirements that have been used to carry it in contempt, and it will attempt to persuade the judges that courts shouldn’t be allowed to restrict the charges it will possibly cost for its companies. The firm has lengthy argued that the 27% price shouldn’t be for cost processing, however for different companies, like internet hosting, discovery, and its software program and developer instruments. Essentially, it’s a price that Apple believes displays the worth of its App Store ecosystem.

However, because the Supreme Court refused to listen to Apple’s prior enchantment, which targeted on a unique side of the case, it might very effectively reject this one as effectively.

When this battle lastly wraps, the court docket’s determination might affect how a lot cash Apple makes from its App Store, as shoppers more and more flip to AI chatbots and brokers to get issues carried out.

Reached for remark, a spokesperson for Epic Games, Natalie Munoz, known as Apple’s movement to remain “another delay tactic to prevent the court from establishing significant and permanent bounds on Apple’s ability to charge junk fees on third-party payments.”

“Courts have time and time again found this to be illegal,” she added. “Epic has heard this directly from many developers in our efforts to offer Web Shops and similar features to them in competition with Apple. As a result of Apple’s tactics, only a few brave developers, including Spotify, Kindle, and Patreon, have been willing to take advantage of this right and bring benefits to consumers. We will keep standing up to Apple’s attempts to undermine competition.”

Updated after publication with Epic’s remark, and to notice when the movement was granted.