Apple is turning to the U.S. Supreme Court in its efforts to appeal Epic Games’ anti-trust case.
As reported by Reuters, the iPhone maker seeks to undo a 2021 ruling that it must allow third-party in-app purchases in App Store apps and games. This came after Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store for offering its own in-app purchasing system, which the company said violated its store policies.
Until that point, Apple required all purchases to go through the App Store, giving it a 30 percent cut on each one. In response to Fortnite‘s delisting from the App Store, developer Epic Games sued Apple, accusing the company of monopolistic business practices and calling for the removal of Apple’s 30 percent cut.
Apple, for its part, argued that this revenue-sharing policy was a necessary operating cost while also claiming that locking payments to the App Store offered developers “privacy, security, content, and quality.”
Ultimately, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that neither company was entirely correct. While she did order Apple to allow third-party payment systems, she didn’t agree with Epic’s assertion that the App Store was a monopoly and said Apple had the merit to remove Fortnite per its policies. Epic appealed this, although the courts upheld the ruling in April, rejecting the company’s claims of an anti-competitive App Store.
It remains to be seen what will come out of Apple’s latest appeal to the Supreme Court.
Source: Reuters
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