Feed: Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
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Title: Apple's appeal for an emergency hold on app fees denied by court

Date: Fri, 06 Jun 2025 12:30:17 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/apps/apples-appeal-f...

A court has denied Apple's appeal for an emergency stay on a ruling over
purchases made outside the App Store in the US, TechCrunch reported. That
means Apple will no longer be able to be able to collect fees when users
click on links within an app that takes them to an external site for a
purchase. "After reviewing the relevant factors, we are not persuaded that a
stay is appropriate," the judges stated in a filing.

Earlier this year, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Apple violated her
2021 ruling on Epic's lawsuit against Apple. The judge originally ordered
Apple to allow developers to direct users to other payment systems that would
let them bypass the App Store's usual 30 percent commission fee. However,
Apple still took up to a 27 percent cut for external purchases while showing
users a "scare screen" warning that paying they'd lost the company's
protection if paying outside the app store.

As part of the ruling, Gonzalez Rogers ordered Apple to stop collecting fees
for external payments in the US immediately. She also prohibited Apple from
creating rules that would prevent developers from presenting customers with
buttons and links for external payments. Apple complied with the order but
immediately filed an appeal for an emergency hold on the ruling so it could
resume collecting fees on external app purchases ΓÇö and that appeal has now
been denied.

"The long national nightmare of the Apple tax is ended," Epic CEO Tim Sweeny
wrote on X in response to the ruling. "May next weekΓÇÖs WWDC be the Apple-
led celebration of freedom that developers and users have long deserved."
Apple has yet to comment on the matter.

Other companies with a large presence on iOS like Amazon and Spotify have
already moved quickly to establish external payment methods for their apps.
Epic itself resubmitted Fortnite to the App Store but was denied, calling
Apple's actions "blatant retaliation." However on May 20th, Fortnite finally
returned to the App Store in the US.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/apps/apples-appeal-f...
denied-by-court-123017700.html?src=rss

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