Supreme Court to Hear Apple Epic Games Appeal

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review Apple's contempt finding in its long running antitrust fight with Epic Games, setting up a case that will decide how much commission Apple can charge developers who route payments outside the App Store. The justices took the appeal on Tuesday, June 30, with arguments expected in the term that opens in October.

At a Glance

• Supreme Court will hear Apple's appeal of a contempt ruling tied to the Epic Games antitrust case
• Case stems from a 2021 injunction requiring Apple to allow in app links to outside payment options
• U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers found Apple in civil contempt in 2025 for imposing a 27 percent commission on those outside purchases
• The 9th Circuit upheld the contempt finding in December but gave Apple room to argue for a different commission structure
• Apple charges a 30 percent commission on purchases made directly inside the App Store

How the Dispute Reached This Point

Epic Games filed suit against Apple back in 2020, challenging the company's grip over how transactions happen inside apps running on iOS and how those apps reach consumers in the first place. Apple won most of that case, but Judge Rogers, sitting in the Northern District of California, still issued an injunction in 2021 that forced a meaningful concession: developers had to be allowed to place links inside their apps pointing users toward payment methods that bypass Apple's own system entirely.

Apple complied, technically. It let the links through, then attached new terms. Developers who used outside payment systems within seven days of a user clicking one of those links would still owe Apple a 27 percent commission. That is only three points below the standard 30 percent cut Apple collects on transactions processed through the App Store itself, and Epic argued the fee gutted the intent of the original injunction rather than honoring it.

The Contempt Finding and Appeals Court Response

Judge Rogers agreed with Epic's read of the situation. In 2025 she found Apple in civil contempt for violating her earlier order, a significant rebuke for a company that had insisted it was operating within the letter of the injunction. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco, backed her contempt finding in December.

But the appellate panel did not slam the door entirely. It gave Apple an opening to return to the district court and make fresh arguments over what commission rate, if any, it should be permitted to charge on digital goods that are distributed through the App Store but paid for via third party systems. That proceeding has not yet started back in Oakland, and its outcome now waits on whatever the Supreme Court decides.

Apple has been clear about its position: it denies violating Rogers' order and contends the injunction was never meant to bind the universe of app developers beyond Epic itself. In its filing to the Supreme Court, Apple framed the stakes broadly, noting that