A court has denied Apple's appeal for an emergency stay on a ruling over purchases made outside the App Store in the US, TechCrunch reported. That means Apple will no longer be able to be able to collect fees when users click on links within an app that takes them to an external site for a purchase. "After reviewing the relevant factors, we are not persuaded that a stay is appropriate," the judges stated in a filing.
Earlier this year, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Apple violated her 2021 ruling on Epic's lawsuit against Apple. The judge originally ordered Apple to allow developers to direct users to other payment systems that would let them bypass the App Store's usual 30 percent commission fee. However, Apple still took up to a 27 percent cut for external purchases while showing users a "scare screen" warning that paying they'd lost the company's protection if paying outside the app store.
As part of the ruling, Gonzalez Rogers ordered Apple to stop collecting fees for external payments in the US immediately. She also prohibited Apple from creating rules that would prevent developers from presenting customers with buttons and links for external payments. Apple complied with the order but immediately filed an appeal for an emergency hold on the ruling so it could resume collecting fees on external app purchases — and that appeal has now been denied.
"The long national nightmare of the Apple tax is ended," Epic CEO Tim Sweeny wrote on X in response to the ruling. "May next week’s WWDC be the Apple-led celebration of freedom that developers and users have long deserved." Apple has yet to comment on the matter.
Other companies with a large presence on iOS like Amazon and Spotify have already moved quickly to establish external payment methods for their apps. Epic itself resubmitted Fortnite to the App Store but was denied, calling Apple's actions "blatant retaliation." However on May 20th, Fortnite finally returned to the App Store in the US.
