Apple files emergency appeal to block App Store competition order

Apple filed an emergency appeal on Monday night to overturn a U.S. judge’s ruling that forces the company to open its App Store to more competition.

The tech giant submitted the request to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, asking it to review a decision issued on April 30.

That ruling accused Apple of ignoring an earlier court order from 2021 tied to an antitrust lawsuit filed by Epic Games in 2020. The goal of that original case was to break Apple’s hold on how apps are distributed and how payments are processed on iPhones.

The recent ruling, handed down by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, said Apple “willfully failed” to obey her previous order, which required the company to let developers direct users to cheaper third-party payment options.

Gonzalez Rogers made it clear the company’s delay tactics were intentional. She refused to let Apple pause the enforcement of her latest order and referred the case to federal prosecutors for a possible criminal contempt investigation.

One of Apple’s unnamed executives was also referred alongside the company. “Apple sought to maintain a revenue stream worth billions in direct defiance of this court’s injunction,” Gonzalez Rogers wrote in her decision, which was first reported by Reuters.

Judge slams Apple over new 27% fee and “scare screens”

Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Apple’s response to her 2021 injunction involved new policies that directly clashed with the intent of the court’s order.

One of those policies was a fresh 27% fee slapped on developers whose customers made purchases outside the App Store. She said the fee was designed to block developers from fully benefiting from the order.

She also criticized the company for deploying what she called “scare screens” — pop-up warnings that discouraged users from choosing third-party payment systems.

The judge said those screens were aimed at intimidating customers into staying inside Apple’s payment framework, despite the fact that the court had ordered the company to stop interfering with alternative options.

Apple, for its part, denied violating the 2021 injunction. The company’s court filing didn’t outline its full legal strategy but confirmed it will challenge the contempt finding and try to stop the order from being enforced.

The company didn’t comment further or offer any explanation for the 27% fee or the warnings embedded in its interface. The appeal now moves to the Ninth Circuit, but unless that court intervenes, Apple will be required to start allowing outside payment choices and stop using tactics that block them.

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