The long-running legal dispute between Apple and Epic Games finally reached a verdict two years ago. But the battle, which began when Epic circumvented Apple’s 30% cut for in-app purchases and Apple responded by booting Fortnite from the App Store, is far from over. And now he’s headed to the highest court in the land.
Given that Apple hailed Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’ 2021 decision as “a huge victory,” it was no surprise that Epic appealed. Less predictably, Apple also appealed. In a filing this week, Apple lawyers argued the court went too far in issuing a broad nationwide injunction applying to all developers, rather than Epic. Maybe it wasn’t such a big win after all.
While the judge ruled in favor of Apple on nine counts, the Cupertino company was unhappy with the 10th: it went in favor of Epic, with the result that Apple was “permanently restrained” and prohibits prohibiting developers from including in their apps and buttons metadata, external links or other calls to action that direct customers to purchase mechanisms. This means iOS app developers can connect to their own payment systems, and Apple has to live with that. In other words, Epic is getting its own way on the issue at the very heart of the original dispute.
Apple and Epic both appealed (different parts of) the decision to the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, but were unsuccessful. The companies then appealed against the upholding of the judgment by the Court of Appeal and were again dismissed. So now Apple is taking its case all the way to the Supreme Court.
“The District Court issued a sweeping injunction prohibiting Apple from enforcing its anti-steering rules against all developers of iOS apps offered for distribution in the United States, even if the only named plaintiff (Epic Games, Inc.) has not sought or obtained any class action. certification, and did not prove that an injunction in favor of non-parties was necessary to make it whole,” the filing states.
“The panel’s decision affirming the injunction deviates from Supreme Court and circuit precedent that an injunction cannot be broader than necessary to render the plaintiff whole, and that relief cannot otherwise extend to the beyond the named applicant without class certification.”
Slightly less convincingly, the filing argues that “there would be no harm to Epic from a stay: Epic is not an iOS app developer and does not benefit from the injunction.” Epic is not an iOS app developer because Apple has terminated their account.
Apple is rumored to be opening iOS 17 to third-party app stores and downloading it in the European Union under the Digital Markets Act’s strict terms regarding third-party app stores and payments. However, Apple has yet to announce any such changes to the operating system, which will launch this fall.
