Apple has lost a bid to pause calculations of App Store fees and now has 24 hours to submit an outline of the fees it wants to charge developers for using alternative payment options and linking out to purchase pages on the web. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California denied Apple’s request to stay proceedings while the Supreme Court prepares to hear the case in the term that begins in October.
Apple’s filing will be followed by a window for Epic Games: the developer will have 60 days to file a legal analysis of Apple’s proposed fees, after which the district court will decide what level of fees is reasonable. Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, posted about the decision on August 11, 2026: “Apple’s stay was denied! Now they have 24 hours to file their proposed menu of junk fees with The Court, and Epic will have 60 days to file our legal analysis in advance of a court hearing on the topic.” — Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) August 11, 2026
What’s next for App Store fees
The fee calculation stems from a long-running dispute that began when Epic Games sued Apple in 2020. A court ordered Apple to lift its anti-steering rules so developers could link to non-App Store purchase options; Apple complied but imposed a 12 to 27 percent fee on such link-based transactions, a rate that resulted in few developers adopting the option.
Epic accused Apple of violating the court’s order; in April 2025 U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers found Apple in contempt and barred Apple from collecting any fees on links in the U.S. App Store. Apple appealed; the appeals court upheld the contempt finding but ruled Apple was entitled to reasonable fees for its intellectual property and remanded the matter to the district court to determine what fee would be appropriate.
As a result, Apple has not collected payments for link-outs since April 2025 and there are currently no fees in force. Apple appealed the continuing contempt ruling to the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case. Apple sought to pause the fee-calculation proceedings on the theory that a Supreme Court decision could alter the contempt finding, but the appeals court, the Supreme Court and now the district court have all denied stay requests.
The district court will now set a fee and Apple will be required to change its App Store rules to comply with that decision. Apple told the Supreme Court that regulators around the world are watching the outcome, suggesting the fee set in this case could have implications beyond the United States.
