Introduction:
The Supreme Court will hear Apple’s dispute with Fortnite creator Epic Games, so the App Store’s present policies will remain in place. This means developers App Store Payment rules to their payment systems later. The two technology behemoths have been at odds over Apple’s insistence that its in-app payment system be used, its commission structure, and its alleged monopolistic activities, which the lower courts ruled untrue.
Epic has asked for the most recent federal appeals court decision to stand while the highest court examined the matter. But now that request has been turned down.
If authorized, Apple would have been required to give developers of App Store apps a choice to link to or include buttons for external payment processors, enabling them to forgo paying Apple’s 15% to 30% fee on purchases and subscriptions.
AApp Store Payment Rules:
App Store Payment rules (Image Source: techcrunch.com)
Despite largely succeeding in its antitrust lawsuit in lower courts, Apple has been fighting against the regulations governing in-app transactions. The U.S. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the lower court’s judgment in favor of Epic under California’s Unfair Competition Law once the case had made it there. By making this decision, Apple would no longer have been able to enforce “anti-steering” limitations on its App Store, which now forbid developers from discussing payment systems other than Apple’s own.
Naturally, Epic wanted the ruling to stand amid its legal battle. The judge’s decision to dismiss the complaint shouldn’t surprise. Apple has a 90-day window to ask the Supreme Court to review the appellate court’s ruling before this.
The first media outlet to publish on the Supreme Court’s decision was Bloomberg, which made it clear that Justice Elena Kagan disagreed with the appellate court’s decision. If the highest court judges decide not to revisit the case, the verdict will stand, according to the story.
