Article written by Haim Ravia and Dotan Hammer
A U.S. Federal Court of Appeals granted Apple’s request to delay a legal order requiring it to change its App Store payment policy. The order, which should have taken effect on December 2nd, required Apple to relax its demand from app developers to only use Apple’s own payments system for in-app purchases, through which Apple charges a high transaction fee.
The order was granted in September 2021, following a year-long legal dispute between Apple and gaming company Epic Games. Apple appealed in October and requested that the district court stay its order, but the district court declined. Apple then appealed to the Ninth Circuit, requesting that the stay be granted.
The Ninth Circuit confirmed the stay, ruling that Apple may wait until the substantive appeal is concluded on the merits of the case. The Ninth Circuit found that Apple demonstrated that its substantive appeal “raises serious questions” as to the district court’s ruling, and proved that it would suffer irreparable harm if forced to make the policy changes at this time.
