Apple won a temporary victory Wednesday in its antitrust battle over the App Store, with an appeals court agreeing to pause an earlier decision that would have allowed apps like Spotify to more freely use their own payment systems.
Apple currently bans apps from “steering” their customers toward payment systems outside of the App Store, and imposes a 30% surcharge on most transactions made within the platform. Fortnite creator Epic Games sued over those rules, and won a decision in September that the steering ban was illegal.
But just hours before that ruling was set to take effect, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granted Apple a stay – a ruling that will maintain the current system while Apple argues its case before the appeals court, a process that could take years.
The appeals court said Apple had raised “serious questions” about the validity of the earlier ruling, and that it was better to pause the ruling than to risk causing “irreparable harm” by forcing Apple to make drastic changes that might latter be overturned on appeal.
Representatives for both Apple and Epic did not immediately return requests for comment on Thursday.
The ruling is a setback for music apps like Spotify, which has been an outspoken critic of Apple’s rules – and even stopped allowing users to sign up through the App Store entirely in 2018 as a result of the fees.
When the ruling was issued in September, Spotify’s chief legal officer praised the decision and called for legislation to address “these and many other unfair practices,” saying they were “designed to hurt competition and consumers.” A spokesman for the company did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday.
The case will now proceed to a full appeal before the Ninth Circuit, which could take years to reach a decision. Both Epic and Apple are challenging aspects of the September ruling, which was seen as a split decision. Apple wants the court to reject the case entirely and reinstate the “steering” rules; Epic wants the court to go even further and rule that many of Apple’s App Store requirements violate federal antitrust laws.
