Overview
- Apple filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court on May 21 asking the justices to review a 2025 contempt finding and the scope of a 2021 injunction that changed App Store linking rules.
- The company asks the Court to decide two legal questions: whether civil contempt can be based on violating the 'spirit' of an order that did not explicitly ban commissions and whether the injunction may bind developers beyond Epic Games.
- The dispute stems from the 2021 order that let developers link to non‑Apple payment methods and Apple’s post‑order rules that imposed tiered fees of roughly 12% or 27% and strict link design limits.
- A federal judge found Apple in contempt in April 2025 for willful violation, the Ninth Circuit upheld that contempt in December but sent the case back to fix a permissible fee, and lower‑court work is moving on an expedited schedule.
- If the Supreme Court takes the case it could change how courts use contempt to enforce injunctions, narrow when nationwide relief is allowed under Trump v. CASA, and affect developers’ fees and consumer payment options on iOS.