The US Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday to hear Apple's appeal of a contempt ruling in its long-running antitrust battle with Epic Games, taking up a case that could shape how much the iPhone maker can charge developers who steer customers to payment options outside its App Store. The justices will hear the matter in their next term, which begins in October.
In a brief order, the court took up Apple's challenge to a lower-court decision that found it in contempt for defying a 2021 injunction governing developer fees. That injunction, issued by a federal judge in California, required Apple to let developers include links in their apps directing users to non-Apple payment methods, part of a case brought by Epic, the maker of the game Fortnite, contesting App Store fees.
The narrow legal question the court agreed to consider is whether Apple can be held in contempt for allegedly violating the spirit of the injunction rather than an express provision of it. Apple has argued that a contempt finding based on the spirit of an order, rather than its explicit terms, is a recipe for abuse, contending there was no clear and unambiguous violation. The justices declined to take up a second issue Apple raised, a challenge to whether the injunction should apply to developers worldwide rather than just to Epic.
The dispute traces back to a lawsuit Epic filed in 2020 over the commissions and restrictions Apple imposed on in-app purchases. Apple largely prevailed on the core antitrust claims in 2021 and was not found to have broken antitrust law, but the court barred it from preventing developers from telling users about cheaper payment options elsewhere. When Apple subsequently allowed such links but imposed a 27% commission on purchases made through outside payment systems within seven days of a user clicking a link, Epic argued the move flouted the original order. In 2025, the judge found Apple in civil contempt for willfully violating the injunction, and an appeals court upheld that finding late last year while allowing Apple to make new arguments about what commission it may charge. Apple filed its petition with the Supreme Court in May.
Both companies framed the court's decision as a positive development for their respective positions. Apple said the matter raised an important question of law and that it was pleased the court would hear the case, while maintaining that it had not violated any prior orders. Epic, for its part, said it welcomed the fight, casting Apple's fees on third-party payments as illegal and anticompetitive and pledging to keep pressing its case.
The stakes extend well beyond the two companies. Apple told the court that the legal issues would affect how millions of app purchases are made, and noted that regulators around the world are watching the case to determine what commission it may charge on covered purchases in large markets outside the United States. Standard App Store commissions range from 15% to 30%, though Apple says most developers pay nothing. With the case set for argument in the fall, a ruling could redraw the economics of app distribution and the broader question of how dominant digital marketplaces handle alternative payment systems, an issue Epic has also pursued against other large platform operators.