The U.S. Supreme Court handed Epic Games, maker of the popular video game “Fortnite,” a setback in its legal battle with Apple on Wednesday, refusing to allow a federal judge’s injunction that could force the iPhone maker to change its Its a lucrative payment method. app Store.
Liberal Justice Elena Kagan, representing the Supreme Court, denied Epic’s request to reverse a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruling that effectively delayed U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers (Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers) issued an injunction prohibiting certain App Store rules, Apple appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Ninth Circuit upheld the injunction in April but set aside the decision in July. Kagan handles urgent matters for the Supreme Court in a number of states, including California.
Epic filed an antitrust lawsuit in 2020, accusing Apple of acting as an illegal monopoly, requiring consumers to obtain applications through its App Store, and using its own system to purchase digital content within the application, and charging a commission of up to 30% for this.
Rogers dismissed Epic’s antitrust charges against Apple in 2021. But the judge found that Apple violated California’s unfair competition law by prohibiting developers from “leading” users to bypass Apple’s in-app system to make digital purchases, while Epic could save them money through lower commissions.
The judge’s injunction requires Apple to allow app developers to provide links and buttons that direct consumers to other ways to pay for the digital content they use in apps.
In an attempt to suspend the ban while it prepares an appeal to the Supreme Court, Apple told the Ninth Circuit that Rogers barred it from enforcing its rules against all app developers in the U.S., not just Epic, which is Incorrect.
“Pending judicial review, Apple will be required to change its business model to comply with this injunction,” the company told the Ninth Circuit. “There is undisputed evidence that this injunction will limit Apple’s ability to protect users from fraud, The ability to spoof, malware, spyware, and inappropriate content.”
Epic told the Supreme Court that the Ninth Circuit’s standard for setting aside the case was “too permissive.”
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