Supreme Court Grants Apple 24-Hour Stay in Epic Games Fee Fight

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan on Wednesday granted Apple a one-day stay in its legal dispute with Epic Games, giving the company additional time to outline the fees it plans to charge developers for linking out to external purchase options.

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California had denied Apple's request for a stay on Tuesday, giving the company 24 hours to deliver its fee proposal. Apple then filed an emergency request with the Supreme Court, arguing that fee calculations should be paused until the justices rule on the contempt finding. If that ruling is overturned, fee proceedings would become unnecessary.

According to Bloomberg, the short stay is intended to give the high court more time to consider Apple's request. Without the pause, Apple would have been required to submit its proposed fees by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday. The company now has until 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, unless the Supreme Court grants a longer reprieve. Kagan denied a similar stay request earlier this year.

The fee dispute stems from a legal battle that began in 2020. Apple initially won the case and was not declared a monopolist, but the court ordered it to change its anti-steering rules to allow developers to link to non-App Store purchase options. Apple complied, but charged fees nearly identical to its standard App Store commission.

Epic Games accused Apple of violating the injunction, and the court agreed. Apple was found in contempt for willfully disregarding the original ruling and was barred from collecting fees on links in the U.S. App Store.

An appeals court upheld the contempt decision but ruled that Apple is entitled to reasonable fees for its intellectual property. The case was sent back to the district court to determine what constitutes a reasonable fee. Apple then appealed to the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case.

Apple is asking the Supreme Court to overturn the contempt ruling, which would negate both the order blocking fee collection and the appeals court's mandate for reasonable fee calculations. Apple has argued that regulators worldwide are watching to see what a U.S. court considers a reasonable rate, so fee proceedings could set a precedent even if the contempt ruling is overturned.

Apple has not collected fees from link-outs in the U.S. since April 2025. The company would prefer to continue collecting nothing while it exhausts all appeals rather than have the court establish a rate.