{"id":901586,"date":"2025-06-05T05:40:56","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T12:40:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cultofmac.com\/?p=901586"},"modified":"2025-06-05T05:39:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T12:39:14","slug":"app-store-changes-appeals-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cultofmac.com\/news\/app-store-changes-appeals-court","title":{"rendered":"Appeals court denies Apple request to walk back court-ordered App Store changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday shot down Apple\u2019s request to put a hold on a recent judge\u2019s order that opens the App Store to more financial competition.<\/p>\n

Apple already made the changes after being ordered to by the federal judge in April, but asked that they be put on hold during the appeal process. A federal appeals court denied the request.<\/p>\n

Apple loses another round in court<\/h2>\n

In 2021, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ordered Apple to allow iPhone software developers to point customers to their own websites<\/a> to make in-app purchases without giving Apple a percentage of the revenue. Apple didn\u2019t do it. But on April 30, the judge put her foot down and ordered the Mac-maker to comply<\/a> immediately, which it did<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not the end of the legal fight, as the iPhone maker appealed the decision and asked the relevant appeals court to put a hold on Gonzalez Rogers\u2019 order so it could walk back the changes to the App Store.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter reviewing the relevant factors, we are not persuaded that a stay is appropriate<\/a>,\u201d the court said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The court went on to say that it wasn\u2019t convinced Apple would eventually win its case, and the company won\u2019t be \u201cirreparably injured\u201d by the changes during the appeals process.<\/p>\n

Recent App Store changes that are now semi-permanent<\/h3>\n

Under Gonzalez Rogers\u2019 order, Apple must allow third-party developers to include in their iPhone apps notifications and links so customers can easily make purchases outside the App Store and avoid using Apple\u2019s payment system. Plus, the court order forbids Apple from showing customers ominous-sounding warnings when they follow links from apps to developers\u2019 websites \u2026 something the company had been doing.<\/p>\n

But the part of the ruling that\u2019s likely most important to Apple is that it cannot require iPhone application developers to pay a commission of 12% to 27%<\/a> on transactions made outside the App Store.<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s decision of the appeals court means that these changes stay in place during the appeals process, though they could be removed if the appeals court eventually decides to overturn Gonzalez Rogers\u2019 ruling.<\/p>\n

All of this took place as the result of a lawsuit brought by Epic Games back in 2020. The game developer wanted to do just what Gonzalez Rogers\u2019 ordered: send players of its popular Fortnite<\/em> game to its own website to make purchases. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney posted on X, \u201cThe long national nightmare<\/a> of the Apple tax is ended.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An appeals court shot down Apple\u2019s request to put a hold on a judge\u2019s order that opens the App Store to more financial competition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30085,"featured_media":901588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[832,32886,1675],"class_list":["post-901586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-app-store","tag-apple-legal-battles","tag-epic-games"],"yoast_head":"\nAppeals court denies Apple request to undo App Store changes | Cult of Mac<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An appeals court shot down Apple\u2019s request to put a hold on a judge\u2019s order that opens the App Store to more financial competition.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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