Apple has asked the Supreme Court to reconsider an earlier ruling in its fight against Epic Games that would have changed the App Store’s rules.
In the petition, filed Thursday and embedded below, Apple criticized a prior decision that would have forced it to allow app developers to steer their users toward alternative payment options outside of the App Store. This injunction remains in limbo as Epic and Apple seek to take their ongoing battle to the Supreme Court, but it will go into effect if the high court refuses to take the case.
Apple called the ruling that will force it to allow payment solutions in its app marketplace “astonishingly broad” because it would apply not just to Epic Games but to all app makers.
“In this single-plaintiff case, the District Court automatically “Issued a global injunction preventing Apple Inc. from enforcing one of its contractual guidelines against all app developers on the US App Store — of which there are millions — not just against Epic Games, Inc.” A new petition obtained by TechCrunch.
“The Ninth Circuit held on the ground that expanding injunctive relief to some nonparties — nearly 100 other app developers — was necessary to address Epic’s alleged harm. No court has ever found, or even considered, whether relief for all parties unaffected necessary or appropriate.
Epic filed its own petition with the Supreme Court on Wednesday, asking the high court to reconsider its core claims — that Apple is violating federal antitrust laws through its lucrative App Store business. While lower courts sided with Epic on the issue of promoting third-party payment options, the lion’s share of the ruling came in Apple’s favor.