United States of America: District Court for the Northern District of California issued its ruling in Epic Games v Apple holding Apple in civil contempt and imposing restrictions on linked-out purchases
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District Court for the Northern District of California issued its ruling in Epic Games v Apple holding Apple in civil contempt and imposing restrictions on linked-out purchases
On 30 April 2025, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California issued its ruling in Epic Games v Apple (Epic III), 781 F. Supp. 3d 943 (N.D. Cal. 2025), holding Apple in civil contempt for noncompliance with the Injunction and denying Apple's motion to set aside the Injunction under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b). The court found that Apple had prohibited App Store developers from using buttons, links, and other calls to action without paying a prohibitive 27% commission on linked-out purchases and had restricted the design of developers' links to make it difficult for customers to use them. The court permanently enjoined Apple from imposing any commission or fee on linked-out purchases, restricting or conditioning developers' style, language, formatting, quantity, flow, or placement of links for purchases outside an app, prohibiting or limiting the use of buttons or other calls to action for purchases outside an app, excluding certain categories of apps and developers from obtaining link access, interfering with consumers' choice to proceed in or out of an app using anything other than a neutral message, and restricting developers' use of dynamic links. The court also referred Apple and one of its officers for criminal investigation.
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