Ap p le has, unsurprisingly, filed an appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court on the changes it was forced to make to the App Store, calling those changes unconstitutional and noting that those changes expand the injunction “beyond what is permissible by law.”
Apple’s battle over the App Store goes back a few years, when Epic took Apple to court, alleging it was operating an illegal monopoly and imposing anti-competitive regulations on app developers. The court ruled in Epic’s favor and told Apple that it would need to allow developers to link to outside sources where users could make payments for stuff. Such as in-game items. This was opposed to a user having to pay for something through the App Store, for which Apple would get a cut.
Apple made the requested changes in 2024. Then charged a fee to developers if they wanted to link outside the App Store to the web. Epic then went back to the court, stating that these new fees were in violation of the original ruling. To which the judge agreed and gave Apple a new ruling. Allow developers to link to the web for payments, with no fees, or pay the price. This is the ruling that Apple is now taking to the Ninth Circuit Court.
Apple says in its App Store appeal that the injunction was improperly expanded and modified
Apple was never going to sit idly by with this injunction. So, it shouldn’t come as a shock that it has now filed an appeal to this modified ruling. In its filing, Apple says the original injunction was “improperly expanded and modified.” The company wants the court to throw the modified injunction out the window and revisit the original .
If this happens, Apple could end up re-implementing fees for inserting outside links . At the moment, however, Apple must comply with the current ruling. For now, US developers are allowed to insert outside links without a fee. It’s unclear if Apple’s appeal will lean in its favor. It’s also unclear when changes would be made again if that happens.
Epic has also recently slammed Apple’s EU App Store terms. Calling the terms a hostile move that punishes developers. Epic is also fighting a similar battle in court against Google .
