A U.S. court denied Apple a stay on a ruling that requires the company to stop charging developers for payments made outside the App Store through links in apps.
This means in the U.S., Apple will no longer be able to charge developers a fee when customers click on a link within their app that takes them outside the App Store for payment, resulting in a potential loss of revenue to the company.
“Apple ‘bears the burden of showing that the circumstances justify an exercise of [our] discretion,’” the court said in a filing. “After reviewing the relevant factors, we are not persuaded that a stay is appropriate,” it added.
Epic Games’ head Tim Sweeney applauded the court’s ruling and said, “The long national nightmare of Apple tax is ended,” in a post on X.
Apple called the denial of stay disappointing in a statement.
“We are disappointed with the decision not to stay the district court’s order, and we’ll continue to argue our case during the appeals process. As we’ve said before, we strongly disagree with the district court’s opinion. Our goal is to ensure the App Store remains an incredible opportunity for developers and a safe and trusted experience for our users,” an Apple spokesperson said.
In April, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled in favor of Epic Games, saying that Apple was in “willful violation” of a 2021 injunction that barred the company from forcing anticompetitive pricing. This essentially means that Apple must change the App Store rules and allow developers to freely link to their website for purchasing digital goods.
In response, Apple filed an emergency motion last month seeking a stay on the court’s ruling. The company also filed an appeal against the ruling around the same time.
Last year, Apple began allowing other apps to link out and use non-Apple payment mechanisms, but it still took a 27% fee and added what critics called “scare screens.” With the new ruling, both practices will be eliminated.
Large companies are already making changes to their apps, with Spotify and Amazon publishing new updates that let users pay for their subscriptions and purchases outside the App Store.
With the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) slotted for next week, this is a big blow to Apple. Earlier this week, the company published a report saying that it generated $1.3 trillion in billings and sales in 2024. It added 90% of those sales didn’t generate commission revenue for Apple.
The story has been updated with Apple’s comment.
