Apple must implement Epic changes
- The Ninth Circuit on April 28 reversed its own stay, forcing Apple to resume Epic Games App Store changes while it prepares a Supreme Court petition. - Judges said Apple failed to show “good cause” for a pause and said remand proceedings on App Store commissions would proceed anyway. - The ruling revives court-ordered App Store changes first imposed after Apple’s anti-steering loss in Epic’s case. (9to5mac.com)
A federal appeals court has taken away Apple’s pause button in its fight with Epic Games over App Store payment rules. (9to5mac.com) The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granted Epic’s motion for reconsideration on April 28 and reversed an April 6 order that had stayed the mandate while Apple prepared a Supreme Court petition. (9to5mac.com) (macrumors.com) The panel said Apple had not shown the Supreme Court was likely to take the case or overturn the ruling, and said Apple “has failed to show good cause to sustain our prior stay order.” (9to5mac.com) That means the case goes back into active implementation even as Apple seeks review in Washington. Apple can still ask the Supreme Court to hear the dispute, but it no longer gets to freeze the lower-court work while it waits. (techcrunch.com) (9to5mac.com) The underlying fight is about “anti-steering” rules, Apple’s limits on how app developers tell iPhone users about ways to pay outside the App Store. In 2021, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ordered Apple to let developers include buttons, links and other calls to action that send customers to outside payment options. (cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov) The Ninth Circuit said in its December 11, 2025 opinion that Apple violated that injunction by charging a 27% commission on linked-out purchases and by imposing link-design restrictions that made outside buying harder. (cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov) Apple had argued this month that remand proceedings over a “reasonable commission” should wait because the Supreme Court could still step in. The appeals court rejected that, saying the lower-court work would likely look similar even if the justices later took the case. (9to5mac.com) (macrumors.com) Epic had told the court that delay was freezing adoption because many developers would not spend time and money adding external-payment links without certainty on what Apple could charge. Epic also said the earlier Apple compliance plan produced “zero meaningful developer adoption,” citing the Ninth Circuit’s own opinion. (cdn2.unrealengine.com) The case has already reshaped Apple’s App Store rules once. After Judge Gonzalez Rogers found Apple in contempt in April 2025, Apple dropped link fees while appealing, and the December 2025 appellate ruling sent the commission question back for further proceedings. (macrumors.com) (cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov) For developers, the immediate issue is not a final commission number but whether Apple must keep allowing outbound purchase links without the old restrictions while the next round plays out. For Apple, the legal fight is now running on two tracks at once: implementation in the lower court and a planned Supreme Court appeal. (appleinsider.com) (techcrunch.com)
