Apple has asked the US Supreme Court to throw out the contempt ruling that currently bars it from collecting any fee on purchases made through links inside apps in the US App Store. If Apple wins, the App Store could revert to charging developers 12 to 27 percent on those external link-out purchases, the same rate it tried to impose before a judge found it in contempt.
What Apple filed and why it matters to your apps
Apple’s opening merits brief, filed Monday, traces back to a 2021 ruling by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Apple’s antitrust case with Epic Games. That original injunction ordered Apple to let developers link out to alternative payment options instead of forcing App Store purchases through Apple’s own system. Apple complied, but charged a 12 to 27 percent fee on those external purchases anyway, and few developers used the option as a result.
Epic went back to court arguing Apple had effectively ignored the spirit of the ruling. In April 2025, Gonzalez Rogers agreed, found Apple in contempt, and barred it from collecting any fee at all on link-out purchases. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that contempt finding, which is what Apple is now asking the Supreme Court to reverse.
Apple’s core legal argument
Apple’s brief argues that a company cannot be held in contempt for violating the “spirit” of a court order when the order’s actual wording never addressed the conduct at issue. Apple points out that the original 2021 injunction said nothing about what fees it could or couldn’t charge on link-outs. The company cites case law dating back to 1885, arguing the Ninth Circuit broke with legal precedent by punishing it anyway.
If the Supreme Court agrees, the contempt order and the fee ban that came with it would be vacated. App Store rules on external payment links would return to where they stood before April 2025, and developers could again face a cut on purchases made through outside payment links.
What happens next
Epic’s response brief is due November 13, 2026, and Apple can file a reply by December 14. The Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments in 2027. In the meantime, Apple is also due back in district court on a separate track, to work out what a “reasonable” fee on link-out purchases would look like if the Supreme Court doesn’t throw out the case first. Nothing changes for developers or App Store users today. The current fee-free rule for external purchase links stays in place until the court rules.
Source: MacRumors
