Supreme Court Will Hear Apple's Appeal in Epic Games App Store Fight

The United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear Apple's appeal against the contempt ruling that forced it to change its App Store linking rules, reports Reuters. In a statement to Mac Rumors, Apple said the court's decision was welcome news. This is an important question of law and we are pleased the Supreme Court will hear our case. Apple asked the Supreme Court to review the decision back in May, and it was unclear if the request would be granted because the court previously declined to weigh in on the dispute. The 2024 denial involved the original Epic Games vs. Apple commission battle, but the case has since gotten spicier and piqued the Supreme Court's interest. Apple largely won the Epic Games case in 2021 and wasn't found to have violated antitrust law, but Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, the judge overseeing the case, ordered Apple to relax its anti-steering rules and let developers link to alternate payment options in apps. Apple agreed, but ended up charging a 12 to 27 percent fee on link-outs instead of 15 to 30 percent. When adding in fees to payment processors, developers got more hassle with little to no discount, which resulted in few developers using the new link system. ‌Epic Games‌ accused Apple of violating the judge's order, and took Apple back to court. Gonzalez Rogers agreed with Epic, and in April 2025, found Apple in contempt of court for willfully violating the 2021 injunction. She barred Apple from collecting any fees on links in the U.S. App Store, and Apple changed its ‌App Store‌ rules to comply. Apple appealed, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the contempt finding, leading Apple to further appeal to the Supreme Court. Apple argued the contempt ruling was inappropriate because of the wording around the original order and Apple's implementation. The initial order did not bar Apple from charging fees when developers linked to third-party payment options, but both the district court and the appeals court said Appl