{"id":378828,"date":"2026-09-24T02:48:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T09:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/?p=378828"},"modified":"2026-09-24T02:48:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T09:48:05","slug":"apple-and-epic-games-the-u-s-government-now-backs-apple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/apple-and-epic-games-the-u-s-government-now-backs-apple\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple and Epic Games: the U.S. government now backs Apple"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a brief with the Supreme Court backing Apple in the Apple-Epic Games case, pushing this long fight over App Store<\/a> rules back into view. The government sides with one of Apple\u2019s main arguments<\/strong>: a court order has to be enforced as written, not stretched beyond what it actually says.<\/p>\n

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\r\n Epic Games<\/span>\r\n Download<\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
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\r\n \r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

the 27% commission<\/a> is back at the center of the case<\/h2>\n\n

At the heart of the dispute is the 27% commission<\/strong> on purchases made outside the App Store, which Apple introduced after the court\u2019s first ruling. That ruling didn\u2019t set a commission rate. It only said the commission had to be \u201cfair.\u201d Epic Games called the 27% cut \u201cunfair,\u201d and the court then found that Apple hadn\u2019t complied with the judgment.<\/p>\n\n

That\u2019s where the Department of Justice steps in. Apple has long argued that the order allowed those external links and still left room for Apple to charge for the value of its platform. That idea is still built into Apple\u2019s newer commission proposal. In its brief, the Department of Justice says that reading of the order is perfectly reasonable.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

The whole dispute turns on the \u201cfair ground of doubt\u201d standard. Civil contempt requires complete clarity about the conduct in question, so, in the Department of Justice\u2019s view, Apple didn\u2019t violate the judge\u2019s directives<\/strong> and the Supreme Court should throw out the contempt finding.<\/p>\n\n

Major boost for Apple<\/h2>\n\n

In Europe, Apple has already adjusted to App Store rules<\/a> and still charges a commission on purchases made outside the App Store. Epic Games\u2019 complaints don\u2019t draw the same level of attention there anymore. In the United States, though, they still do.<\/p>\n\n

Here, support from the Department of Justice matters a lot. Courts take that seriously, and it could shape how the Supreme Court comes down on the case.<\/p>\n\n

Several business groups and legal experts are also backing Apple\u2019s arguments, but the fight still comes down to the exact wording<\/strong> of the order. Right now, the stronger reading seems to be that a \u201cfair\u201d commission can still mean 27%. We\u2019ll see where the courts land.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a brief with the Supreme Court backing Apple in the Apple-Epic Games case, pushing this long fight over App Store rules back into view. The government sides with one of Apple\u2019s main arguments: a court order has to be enforced as written, not stretched beyond what it actually … Continue reading “Apple and Epic Games: the U.S. government now backs Apple”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9262,"featured_media":378827,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-378828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378828"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":378829,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378828\/revisions\/378829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378828"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=378828"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=378828"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=378828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}