Apple is preparing to take its App Store battle with Epic Games to the Supreme Court. In a new filing, the iPhone maker said it plans to ask the US Supreme Court to review another aspect of the long-running case over the App Store’s finances.
In the meantime, Apple wants to temporarily suspend an appeals court ruling that limits how it can charge foreign payments.
As a refresher, Apple has been in a multi-year legal battle against Fortnite maker Epic Games after the game maker added external payments to its app to exceed Apple App Store revenue in 2020. Apple largely won the case in 2021 as the court decided that Apple was not alone. However, the judge clarified that Apple should allow developers to link to external payment options.
The tech giant appealed that decision to the Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case, allowing the Ninth Circuit Court’s original decision to stand. As a result, Apple began allowing third-party payments, but charged developers using their payment systems a 27% commission on those purchases — only a small discount from Apple’s usual 30% fee. (At the same time, Google, facing a similar lawsuit, settled with Epic Games last month, and reduced its Google Play Store commissions to 20%.)
Epic Games argued that such payment was inconsistent with the court order; they and other developers were also not saving any money, as payment processing has its own fees.
The US District Court for the Northern District of California agreed with Epic, finding Apple in contempt. That decision was upheld by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in December 2025. The appeals court said that Apple’s 27% tax on foreign payments effectively violates the intent of self-sufficiency, but did not propose a new amount. That decision goes back to the lower court to decide. (Apple requested a retrial of the decision, but its request was denied in March 2026.)
With Apple now out of options within the Ninth Circuit, it plans to take its case to the Supreme Court.
If the Supreme Court agrees to hear the case, Apple is expected to challenge the legal standards used to defy it, and will try to convince the judges that the courts should not be allowed to limit the fees they can charge for their services. The company has long argued that the 27% fee is not for payment processing, but for other services, such as hosting, discovery, and its software and developer tools. In fact, it’s a currency that Apple believes reflects the value of its App Store ecosystem.
However, since the Supreme Court declined to hear Apple’s previous appeal, which focused on a different aspect of the case, it may reject this one as well. The matter now goes back to the lower court to decide what, if any, commission Apple can charge for purchases made outside the App Store.
When this battle ends, the court’s decision could affect how much Apple makes from its App Store, as consumers increasingly turn to chatbots and AI agents to get things done.
Reached for comment, Epic Games spokeswoman Natalie Munoz called Apple’s motion to suspend “another delaying tactic to prevent the court from imposing significant and permanent restrictions on Apple’s ability to levy junk fees on third-party payments.”
“Courts always find that this is illegal,” he added. “Epic has heard this directly from many developers in our efforts to provide Web Stores and similar features to them when we compete with Apple. Due to Apple’s tactics, only a few brave developers including Spotify, Kindle, and Patreon, are willing to use this right and bring benefits to consumers. We will continue to resist Apple’s attempts to undermine the competition.”
Updated after publication by Epic Comments.
