Apple loses App Store stay

Apple’s App Store fight with Epic just took another turn — and this one matters for how iPhone apps can ask you for money right now. A federal appeals court has yanked back a pause it gave Apple earlier this month. So the court-ordered App Store changes stay in effect while Apple tries to get the Supreme Court interested. Basically, Apple wanted time. The Ninth Circuit said no. (cdn2.unrealengine.com) ### What changed this week? On April 28, 2026, the Ninth Circuit granted Epic’s motion for reconsideration and reversed its own April 6 order that had stayed the mandate for Apple. The practical effect is simple — the case now moves forward in the ordinary course instead of sitting on ice while Apple prepares a cert petition. (cdn2.unrealengine.com) ### Why did Apple want the stay? Apple is trying to keep alive its challenge to the remedies flowing from Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’s April 30, 2025 contempt order. That order came after she found Apple had willfully violated the 2021 anti-steering injunction by, among other things, imposing a 27% fee on purchases made outside the App Store and using restrictions that made outside links less usable. (capstonedc.com) ### Why did the appeals court say no? The panel used the usual stay-pending-cert standard and said Apple didn’t clear it. In plain English, the judges were not persuaded that Apple had raised a substantial question likely to win Supreme Court review, and they also said Apple had not shown irreparable (capstonedc.com) to keep the earlier stay in place. (cdn2.unrealengine.com) ### So what rules stay in force now? For now, Apple has to keep allowing U.S. developers to include links or buttons that send users to external payment options without charging commissions on those purchases under the current court-ordered setup. That does not mean the whole case is over. It means the more developer-friendly rules remain live while the next round plays out. (techcrunch.com) ### What is the remand actually about? The big unresolved piece is the commission question. The Ninth Circuit’s 2025 merits decision largely backed the contempt finding, but it sent the fee issue back for more work instead of finally settling what, if anything, Apple can charge when a developer s(techcrunch.com)reathing room before that fee fight resumes. (cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov) ### Why do developers care so much? Because even a small change in payment rules can swing margins hard, especially for subscriptions, game currency, and big consumer apps. If developers can steer users to the web without handing Apple a near-App-Store-sized cut, they gain pricing power and more direct customer ownership. If Apple later wins back some off-app fee, those flows may need to be rebuilt again. (commlawgroup.com) ### Does this mean the Supreme Court will hear it? No. The Ninth Circuit’s order cuts the other way. The panel explicitly said it did not see a reasonable probability that four justices would take the case or a significant possibility that Apple would win if they did. That is not the same as a Supreme Court rejection, but it is a pretty blunt signal about how the lower court views Apple’s odds. (cdn2.unrealengine.com) ### Bottom line? This is a procedural ruling, but the money is real. Apple lost its attempt to freeze the new App Store payment regime, Epic got the case moving again, and developers now have more reason to treat external billing in the U.S. as a live product decision — not a hypothetical. (cdn2.unrealengine.com)