Apple is asking the US Supreme Court to narrow the scope of the ruling it lost against Epic Games - arguing that App Store rules shouldn't have to be rewritten for every developer because of a single company's lawsuit. "Epic never filed a class action," Apple says in its filing, "and never proved that banning Apple's conduct toward all other developers - like Microsoft or Spotify, who have no connection to Epic - is somehow necessary to secure relief for Epic."

The dispute has lasted five years. It started with Epic's 2020 lawsuit over Fortnite being removed from the App Store. Since then, through multiple court levels, it has turned into a question with far bigger consequences: whether Apple can charge a commission on transactions that take place outside the App Store, via "external links".

Apple introduced external links by court order but then started charging a 27 percent commission on purchases made through them. The Ninth Circuit in the US ruled that this undermined the spirit of the original judgment. Now Apple is trying to bypass that interpretation, arguing that courts can't apply the "spirit" of a ruling when the original text didn't specifically ban commissions on external payments.

Epic has no intention of backing off. "Another Hail Mary to delay finalizing this case and avoid opening the door to competition in payments for the benefit of consumers," was the company's response. This month Fortnite returned to the App Store globally - the first time in half a decade - with the clear expectation that Apple will have to change its commission structure. The question is whether Apple can buy enough time to find a legal workaround.