According to Reuters, Apple was partially successful in the proceedings initiated by Epic Gomes. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that apples were entitled to a “reasonable fee” for transactions performed by developers through external payment channels from the app store, provided that the fee reflects the “actual cost of ensuring the safety and privacy of the user”. What constitutes “reasonable expenses” will be determined by Apple in consultation with the District Court.
However, none of Apple ‘ s other appeals were upheld. The Court found that the 27 per cent rate previously proposed for iOS developers using external payment methods violated the earlier prohibition and that the company’s restrictions on external payment methods advertising were “too broad in scope”. Apples must ensure that external payment options are presented in a similar form as their own. At the same time, the Court of Appeal dismissed Apple ‘ s application for a complete annulment of the injunction. Epic Gomes welcomed the ruling, and his CEO, Tim Sweeney, said on social media: “We will finally witness a massive transformation after years of apple obstruction”. Previously, in April 2025, the United States District Court found that apples were “intentionally violating” the ban, issued in 2021 and in force in January 2024, which prohibited apples from charging fees for in-house purchases through external payment. The presiding judge of the case, Yvon González Rogers, had stated that the practice of apples was “intentionally” not to comply with the prohibitions they had imposed years earlier and had ruled that apples could not charge any fees for transactions completed through external links. Apple contested and appealed the decision, and it was only today that the new judgement of the Court of Appeal was delivered. This decision can be considered a small victory for apples. Although the user pays by clicking on an external link, apples can charge a fee for in-house purchases in a game or application downloaded from App Store. The Court of Appeal held that the previous decision to completely ban apple fees had gone “too far”.
In its judgement, the panel stated: “The District Court, instead of promoting the spirit of the injunction through a reasonable, non-prohibitive commission, grossly prohibited all withdrawals, thereby abusing its discretion”. It was also indicated that “appropriate commissions or cost limits” had been proposed. This means that while apples can continue to charge fees, their rates are likely to be unsustainable. With the exception of the cost clause, the rest of Judge Rogers’ original judgment appears to have been upheld. The Court of Appeal also ruled that apples had the right to restrict developers from placing external payment links or buttons in more visible locations, and that they could limit the use of larger fonts, more visible font styles and the number of links or buttons. At the same time, Fort Night has returned to Google Play in the United States, where in 2020 the game was brought against two companies after Epic protested against the Apple and Google Mobile Payment Policy and went down from both application shops. According to a plan published by Epic Gomes in social media, the game will return to GooglePlay in other areas. The game returned to the iOS platform in the United States and Europe in May 2025 and returned to the shelf in Australia in August.
