Apple wins small victory in appeal on Epic Games case

iPhone giant Apple has secured a small win in an appeal in the case brought by Epic Games.

Reuters reports that the company has persuaded the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that it should be allowed to charge a “reasonable fee” on external payments made to developers outside of the App Store.

This commission, however, has to reflect the “actual costs to ensure user security and privacy” that the tech giant has to expend. As for what constitutes a “reasonable fee”, that’s up for Apple and the district court to hash out.

However, the other parts of Apple’s appeal fell flat. The court ruled that the company’s proposed 27% fee on iOS developers using external payment methods violated an earlier injunction, while restrictions the iPhone giant had placed on how such methods were advertised versus Apple’s internal payment option were too broad. The firm has to make sure that both types of payment methods are showcased in similar ways.

Apple’s demand to have the entire injunction vacated was also denied by the appeals court.

Epic Games has celebrated the news, with CEO Tim Sweeney taking to social media to say: “After years of Apple obstruction, we’re finally going to see large-scale change happening.”

This follows a US District Court enforcing an injunction on Apple in April. This prohibited the company from collecting fees on app purchases made with external payment methods. Said injunction was initially issued in 2021, though it only came into force in January 2024. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers found Apple to be in “wilful violation” of this order in April 2025.

Meanwhile, Fortnite has returned to the Google Play Store in the United States. The battle royale was pulled from both the App Store and Google Play in 2020, shortly before Epic sued both Apple and Google in protest of how they handled mobile payment systems. The game is set to return to Google Play in other regions, per Epic Games posts on social media.

Fortnite returned to iOS in the US and Europe in May 2025, ahead of coming back to Australia in August.