Apple is battling Epic Games to prevent it from changing the App Store’s regulations, and it has urged the Supreme Court to reevaluate a previous decision.
Apple opposed a previous ruling that would have required it to permit app developers to direct their users toward payment methods other than the App Store in a cert petition submitted on Thursday and linked below. That injunction would take effect if the Supreme Court declined to hear the case, but it is still in effect as Epic and Apple attempt to have their protracted legal dispute heard by the high court.
Apple referred to the decision requiring it to permit payment solutions in its app marketplace as “breathtakingly broad” because it would apply to all app developers, not just Epic Games.
The most recent petition, which TechCrunch was able to obtain, stated that the district court “sua sponte issued a universal injunction prohibiting petitioner Apple Inc. from enforcing one of its contractual guidelines against all developers of apps on the App Store’s United States storefront — of which there are millions — not just against respondent Epic Games, Inc.”
The Ninth Circuit upheld the decision because providing injunctive relief to a small number of nonparties—roughly 100 other app developers—was required to address Epic’s stated injury. Neither court ever determined—or even thought about—the necessity or suitability of providing relief to all affected nonparties.
On Wednesday, Epic submitted its petition to the Supreme Court, pleading with the court to reconsider its primary claim—that Apple violates federal antitrust laws with its lucrative App Store business. Even though the lower courts sided with Epic in the dispute over encouraging third-party payment methods, Apple was ultimately given the majority of the judgment.
[Source of Information: Techcrunch.com]
