Democracy Dies in Darkness

Apple prevails in antitrust battle over the future of the App Store

The mixed decision could also result in changes to App Store payments, after the iPhone maker’s contentious legal fight with Fortnite-maker Epic Games.

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Updated April 24, 2023 at 4:07 p.m. EDT|Published April 24, 2023 at 3:22 p.m. EDT
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled Monday that Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, did not prove that Apple’s App Store policies constituted anticompetitive conduct in violation of federal antitrust laws. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)
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A federal appeals court on Monday dealt a blow to Epic Games’ efforts to prove that Apple wields a monopoly in its App Store, in a decision that could have wide-ranging implications for legal challenges against the concentration of power in the tech industry.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit agreed with a lower court’s 2021 decision that Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, failed to prove that Apple’s App Store policies constituted anticompetitive conduct in violation of federal antitrust laws. The Court, however, upheld the lower court’s ruling that Apple ran afoul of California competition laws because it forces developers to use Apple’s payment processing service without allowing them to tell customers about cheaper alternatives.