US appeals court pauses antitrust orders against Apple App Store

The ruling is a significant victory for the iPhone maker as it fights a broad challenge by Epic Games Inc. to its domination of the $142 billion mobile-app distribution market

By Stephen Nellis

(Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday paused the enforcement of an injunction against Apple Inc that could have forced it to allow links and buttons to payment methods outside its App Store.

The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals granted Apple's request to pause the order, which was set to take effect on Dec. 9. The order, handed down in September after a lengthy antitrust trial earlier this year brought by "Fortnite" creator Epic Games, would have required Apple to allow developers to link to an outside payment system, skipping Apple's in-app payments system that charges commissions.

The appeals court decision means Apple will not have to make the changes while it pursues a potentially years-long appeal of the Epic Games decision, which was largely favorable to the iPhone maker aside from the order to allow buttons to outside payment methods.

 

(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco and Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Matthew Lewis)