Apple on Monday lodged an appeal to problem a U.S. choose’s ruling that ordered the tech firm to instantly open its profitable App Store to extra competitors.
Apple in a courtroom discover stated it will ask the San Francisco-based ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to assessment the April 30 ruling, which discovered the corporate in contempt of an earlier order in a 2020 antitrust lawsuit introduced by Epic Games.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers stated in her resolution that Apple willfully didn’t adjust to a 2021 injunction designed to permit builders to extra simply steer customers to probably cheaper non-Apple cost choices.
Gonzalez Rogers additionally referred Apple and one among its executives to federal prosecutors for a potential felony contempt investigation. She refused to place her order on maintain, accusing Apple of delaying and purposefully deceptive the courtroom.
“Apple sought to maintain a revenue stream worth billions in direct defiance of this court’s injunction,” Gonzalez Rogers stated.
Apple had denied violating phrases of the courtroom’s order.
Apple and Epic Games didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Apple’s appeal discover did embrace its deliberate authorized arguments.
The lawsuit by Epic Games, the maker of on-line online game Fortnite, aimed to loosen Apple’s grip over transactions in functions that use its iOS working system and the way apps are distributed to customers.
Gonzalez Rogers ordered Apple to finish a number of practices that she stated have been designed to bypass her earlier injunction, together with a brand new 27% payment it imposed on app builders when Apple prospects full an app buy exterior the App Store.
The choose additionally barred Apple from utilizing so-called “scare screens” to discourage customers from utilizing third-party cost choices.
Published – May 06, 2025 09:05 am IST
