Apple urges – Apple asked the Supreme Court to dismiss Epic Games’ push to end its long-running antitrust fight, arguing the appeal should not move forward and that Epic is trying to recast an injunction Apple says was narrowly limited—while the dispute over a legal “CASA e
The legal fight between Apple and Epic Games has already outlasted several product cycles—and now it’s heading back toward the highest court with another round of motions filed and countered over what the Supreme Court should do next.
On June 4, 2026, Epic Games demanded that Apple’s Supreme Court appeal be thrown out. Apple responded with a 12-page filing defending its right to appeal, aiming to dismantle each of Epic’s arguments and insist that Epic’s own submission “confirms the need for review.”
At the center of Apple’s response are two issues Epic says aren’t important enough to justify an appeal. Epic argues that Apple is effectively trying to keep forbidden anti-steering practices out of bounds—but that it has still done so. In Apple’s filing, lawyers portray Epic’s characterization as an attempt to rewrite the ruling.
Epic points to a restriction on any or all anti-steering practices, and Apple says that framing is wrong. Apple argues that the injunction it received applied only to very specific anti-steering conduct, and that it did not extend to anything about App Store commissions.
From there, both sides collide again over what they call the CASA exception—tied to a precedent set in a separate 2025 case, Trump v CASA, Inc, which involved a class action.
Epic says Apple is claiming that the Ninth Circuit ruling included an exception to CASA. Epic calls that argument “inexplicable” and insists Apple is not exempt from the precedent. Apple. for its part. is pointing back to the earlier case and what it says has already been decided: that CASA “has no bearing” on antitrust cases. With the Apple versus Epic dispute positioned as an antitrust case. Epic’s argument appears. at least on that point. vulnerable.
But the fight isn’t cleanly one-sided. The dispute keeps turning on specific case law, with each side reading the same authorities differently. That makes what happens next harder to predict—and it also makes the timing feel unusually loaded.
The Supreme Court has previously indicated that a decision may be made in June at the earliest. Even if the court acts before the end of June. what’s on the table may be narrower than a full resolution: it would likely be whether to allow the next stage of appeal. A final decision, in that scenario, would still be many months away.
The long road that brought them here stretches back to 2020, when Epic Games picked a fight with Apple. Apple won the giant majority of the case in 2021, but the entire battle still keeps moving because of how Apple handled the one count Epic won—anti-steering.
That count concerned the practice of preventing App Store developers from telling customers about alternative offerings. Courts agreed with Epic that Apple did not fully comply with the resulting order. Apple says it did comply. and it says it structured developer access so users could learn about alternatives only through a complex system. Epic, meanwhile, said Apple still demanded a 27% commission.
As a result, courts imposed an injunction on Apple. The new Supreme Court filing relates to Apple’s challenge to that injunction.
And even with the case now circling the Supreme Court. the mood around the litigation has remained familiar to anyone who has followed it closely. The story. after all. isn’t just about the filings—it’s also about how long both sides have been willing to keep showing up. In May 2026. Epic Games was celebrating as if it had already won. even as Apple prepared to argue that the court should not let the appeal go forward.
Apple Epic Games Supreme Court appeal antitrust anti-steering App Store commissions CASA exception Trump v CASA Inc Ninth Circuit June 2026