Apple has persuaded a U.S. appeals court to reverse parts of a court order requiring the company to make changes to its App Store to promote greater competition, but lost its bid to overturn a sweeping injunction, reports Reuters (a subscription is required to read the article).
The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling in a lawsuit brought by Epic Games, said parts of a judge’s April order holding Apple in contempt for violating a prior decision were overbroad and must be modified. But the appeals court upheld most of the contempt finding and an earlier injunction against Apple in the case, notes Reuters.
From the report: The three-judge panel altered part of the lower court’s ruling that barred Apple from charging any commission or fee tied to purchases that do not take place on the Apple platform. The appeals court said the trial judge must now modify that part of her order.
This is the latest development in what appears to be an eternal legal battle. Apple had asked the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to overturn an April 2021 injunction. Barring that, the tech giant wants a new judge assigned to the case OR the 2021 injunction to be dismissed entirely.
From Apple’s request: The injunction breaches well-established guardrails on the civil contempt power, and its sweeping new restrictions on Apple violate several independent limits, including the Constitution itself.
This Court should reverse the district court’s contempt order and denial of Apple’s Rule 60(b)(5) motion. In the alternative, the court should vacate the new injunction and reassign this case to a different district judge for any further proceedings necessitated by this Court’s decision.
Apple argues that the Epic Games injunction redux goes far beyond the original order and attacks conduct that’s not illegal under California law. In April US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers sided with Fortnite developer Epic Games over its allegation that Apple failed to comply with an order she issued in 2021 after finding the company engaged in anticompetitive conduct in violation of California law.
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Article provided with permission from AppleWorld.Today