The Justice Department on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to limit when federal judges can hold a company in civil contempt, intervening in Apple’s appeal of a ruling that found the iPhone maker violated an injunction won by Fortnite creator Epic Games.
The administration said it was supporting neither Apple nor Epic. Instead, it argued that contempt should apply only when a party’s conduct is clearly forbidden by the express terms of a court order, not by a judge’s later reading of the order’s “spirit.” That position would help Apple on a central issue in the case.
The justices agreed in June to hear Apple’s challenge to an April 2025 contempt finding by a California federal judge. Epic sued Apple in 2020, claiming the company’s App Store rules violated antitrust law. Epic obtained an injunction that required major changes to how Apple handles in-app and related payments. Epic later said Apple broke that order by imposing a 27% commission on certain purchases completed outside the App Store. The lower court agreed that Apple had violated the injunction’s spirit and held the company in contempt.
Apple and the Justice Department contend a court cannot punish conduct the injunction did not expressly prohibit. “Civil contempt is therefore appropriate only if the defendant’s conduct is clearly covered by the injunction’s express terms,” the department wrote. It also asked the Supreme Court to clarify that contempt is proper only when there is “no fair ground of doubt” that an order was violated. The government added that at least one aspect of Apple’s conduct did support a contempt finding; Apple has denied any violation.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has said Apple has spent years evading court and regulatory rulings and that the company intends to end those practices. Neither Apple nor the Justice Department immediately commented. The case is Apple Inc. v. Epic Games Inc., No. 25-1311. Apple is represented by Gregory Garre of Latham & Watkins; Epic by Gary Bornstein of Cravath, Swaine & Moore; and the United States by Solicitor General D. John Sauer.
MacDailyNews Take: Clearly, the U.S. Justice Department is correct.
Again, it’s Apple’s App Store, not Epic’s. Apple has a right to charge developers for use of its App Store.
Apple’s 30% commission (reduced to 15% for many smaller developers) has always funded the secure infrastructure, rigorous app review process, fraud protection, payment systems, and ongoing platform development that benefit users and honest developers. Epic wanted all the upside of that ecosystem with none of the contribution.
The bottom line is clear: Epic Games wants to enjoy all of the benefits of Apple’s App Store, including access to well over one billion of the world’s most affluent users for free. That is illogical, unfair, and, basically, theft. – MacDailyNews, May 4, 2021
How much did it cost developers to have their apps burned onto CDs, boxed, shipped, displayed on store shelves prior to Apple remaking the world for the better for umpteenth time? Apple incurs costs to store, review, organize, surface, and distribute apps to over one billion users. — MacDailyNews, June 10, 2022
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