Apple is lodging an appeal with the US Supreme Court, as it seeks to overturn a 2021 ruling against it in its ongoing legal battle with Epic Games.
The Fortnite-maker sued Apple in 2020 over the App Store, its business model, and the 30% commission Apple charges on App Store transactions.
While Apple beat Epic Games in court on nine out of 10 counts, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Apple would no longer be allowed to stop developers from putting links and buttons to other payment options, taking customers outside of the App Store.
Appealed
As noted by Reuters, Apple has lodged an appeal against that ruling. In the appeal, Apple says the court was wrong to provide a ruling that affects all iOS developers when it was only Epic Games seeking restitution, rather than a class action. The appeal further touts Apple's "greatest security and privacy" on iOS over Android, and says the practice of including external links like those mandated "will expose users to new and significant privacy risks and substantially increase the risk of fraud."
"Because external links operate outside the App Store ecosystem, Apple has no meaningful visibility into their operations, and little ability to redress fraud by identifying and removing fraudulent actors from the App Store," the appeal states, warning that developers "may be able to deceive users" into providing information such as personal information.
The appeal also states that Apple's reputation will suffer "if users are needlessly subjected to scams, fraud, and objectionable content."
Epic and Apple's legal battle is also continuing in the Ninth Circuit, where Epic is seeking to overturn the 9 counts on which the court ruled in Apple's favor.
Victory for Epic would see Apple forced to allow third-party app stores and alternative payment methods on its iPhone platform, a move that some bodies such as the EU are already looking to enforce against Apple.
