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On April 2, 2025, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney renewed his criticism of Apple and Google, calling them “gangster-style” businesses and accusing them of treating penalties for unlawful conduct as a cost of doing business. The immediate dispute was narrower: Epic said Apple’s rules for links to outside payment systems made those links difficult to use, despite a court injunction requiring Apple to allow developers to steer customers to other payment options.
The comments were Sweeney’s rhetoric, not a court’s description of Apple. The court did find Apple in violation of its 2021 anti-steering injunction in April 2025, but a later Ninth Circuit ruling modified the injunction and said Apple could charge a commission on link-out purchases. As of the latest developments covered here, the dispute remained unsettled, with Apple pursuing Supreme Court review.
What Sweeney said—and what he meant
Sweeney’s April 2, 2025 remarks accused Apple and Google of behaving as though they could continue practices they believed to be unlawful whenever the financial penalties were smaller than the revenue at stake. He presented that as evidence that the companies were not acting like good-faith, law-abiding businesses. The phrase “gangster-style” was his characterization, not a legal finding. The remarks were reported amid Epic’s renewed challenge to Apple’s U.S. App Store payment rules.
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The criticism was part of a continuing business and legal dispute, not a new lawsuit or an unrelated outburst. Epic’s central argument was that Apple could not satisfy an order to let developers point users to external payment options while surrounding those options with charges and design restrictions that made them less attractive.
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Why Epic objected to Apple’s external-payment rules
Apple had created a process allowing certain U.S. apps to link to outside payment systems. Developers had to use Apple’s entitlement process and comply with restrictions on how links appeared and where they could be placed. Apple also imposed a reported 27% commission on qualifying purchases made after users followed an external link. A developer could therefore face Apple’s commission as well as the outside payment processor’s charges. Epic argued that this undercut the practical value of offering a competing payment option. The reported 27% rate applied to the policy at issue in 2024–25; it should not be confused with every App Store transaction or every developer’s rate.
Epic also objected to warnings shown when users tapped an external-payment link. It called these “scare screens,” arguing that full-window warnings could discourage customers from leaving Apple’s in-app payment flow. The term is Epic’s, not Apple’s official label. Court materials described disputed requirements such as keeping a link outside the ordinary in-app-purchase flow, limiting its style and calls to action, showing a full-window takeover after a tap, and prohibiting dynamic URLs. Those restrictions appear in materials included with Apple’s Supreme Court petition.
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Sweeney also claimed that Apple’s warning screens caused 50% to 60% of users to abandon a move to Epic’s store in Europe. That is an estimate attributed to Sweeney, not an independently established conversion study in the sources available here. The European example also concerns a different regulatory and commercial setting from the U.S. injunction.
What the courts decided—and what they did not
The dispute began with Epic’s 2020 decision to introduce an alternative payment mechanism in Fortnite, after which Apple removed the game from its App Store and litigation followed. In 2021, a U.S. district court issued an anti-steering injunction requiring Apple to permit developers to communicate alternative purchasing options. Apple won on much of Epic’s broader federal antitrust case; the injunction did not amount to a ruling that Apple was a monopolist.
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On April 30, 2025, the district court found Apple in violation of that existing injunction. Apple’s SEC filing describes the resulting order as barring Apple from charging a commission or fee on purchases made outside an app, conditioning or restricting how developers direct consumers to those purchases, or otherwise interfering with a consumer’s choice to buy inside or outside an app. Apple’s filing summarizes the injunction and the later appeal.
That finding was significant, but it was about compliance with an injunction—not a blanket judgment that Apple’s entire App Store business was illegal, nor a court endorsement of Sweeney’s “gangster-style” language. Epic’s claims about the purpose and effect of Apple’s rules should likewise be distinguished from what the court actually found.
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How the rules and appeal developed
- August 2020: Epic’s alternative Fortnite payment method triggers Apple’s removal of the game and the original litigation.
- 2021: The district court issues an anti-steering injunction. Apple prevails on much of the broader antitrust case.
- April 2025: The district court finds Apple in violation of the injunction, ruling against the external-payment restrictions and charges at issue.
- May 2025: Apple changes its U.S. App Store guidelines to allow external-payment links, while saying it disagrees with the ruling and will appeal. The change followed the district-court order.
- June 2025: The Ninth Circuit denies Apple’s request to pause the district-court ruling. That was an interim development, not the end of the appeal. The court’s refusal to pause enforcement did not settle the final terms.
- December 11, 2025: The Ninth Circuit upholds the injunction in part but modifies it. It permits Apple to require parity in the size, form, and placement of external links and holds that Apple may charge a commission on link-out purchases, sending the matter back to the district court for further proceedings.
- April 2026: Apple pursues Supreme Court review of the later commission dispute; Epic opposes Apple’s effort to pause enforcement. The reported Supreme Court effort concerned the continuing App Store-fee fight.
The December 2025 appellate ruling is the crucial qualification to the 2025 headlines. It is no longer accurate to say, without qualification, that Apple permanently lost the right to charge any commission on external purchases. Nor does the record cited here establish a final Supreme Court resolution by August 2026. The ultimate terms remained subject to further proceedings.
Apple’s position and the stakes for developers
Apple has argued that its fees reflect the value of the App Store ecosystem, including distribution, hosting, discovery, software, developer tools, security, and other services. Epic’s counterargument is that charging a substantial commission when a customer pays outside Apple’s billing system can preserve Apple’s control over a transaction even after the developer has supplied an alternative. The legal question is not simply whether Apple can charge for services; it is what fees and conditions are permissible under the injunction and the later appellate ruling.
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For developers, three arrangements should not be conflated:
- Apple In-App Purchase: The customer pays within Apple’s payment system. Applicable commissions vary by program and developer circumstances; a single rate should not be treated as universal.
- External link-out: The app sends the customer to a developer-controlled website to pay. The permitted presentation and Apple’s ability to charge a commission changed during this litigation and remained subject to further proceedings.
- Alternative app marketplace: A separate way of distributing apps, subject to its own rules and, in the European Union, a different regulatory regime. It is not the same thing as linking out to a website for payment under the U.S. injunction.
These distinctions matter to subscription services, game publishers, and other app businesses assessing whether an outside payment option is viable. A link may be permitted in principle without making the economics, user experience, or compliance obligations equivalent to Apple’s own checkout. The U.S. case also does not establish a universal Apple policy for other countries.
How Epic’s own fees fit into the criticism
Epic also charges fees in its own businesses. The 2025 report described a $100 submission fee per Epic Games Store title and an 88/12 revenue split on most Epic Games Store purchases, as well as fees in parts of Epic’s Unreal Engine and Fab businesses. Those facts are relevant context, but they do not by themselves establish that Epic and Apple offer the same services or operate under equivalent terms. Distribution reach, payment handling, hosting, discovery, tools, and contractual obligations differ across platforms. A fee comparison needs to account for what each platform provides and the rules governing each transaction; the existence of Epic’s fees neither proves nor disproves its legal claims about Apple.
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Why the 2025 comments still matter
Sweeney’s remarks captured the broader dispute over whether a platform can control how users discover and pay for digital goods—and charge for transactions even when payment moves elsewhere. That question can affect developers whose business depends on subscriptions or digital purchases, as well as consumers deciding where to complete a transaction. But the April 2025 comments themselves were not a new legal development. The meaningful changes came through the court orders and appeals that followed.
Epic secured a consequential enforcement finding and pushed Apple to change its U.S. rules. Apple then won an important qualification on appeal: it may require parity in link presentation and may charge a commission on link-out purchases, with further proceedings still to follow. That is a partial, evolving legal result—not a simple victory for either side and not a finding that Apple’s whole App Store model was unlawful.
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