Thanks to a successful lawsuit in the cartel dispute with the app provider Epic Games, Apple has gained time to change its in-house app store.
After a court ruling from September to December 9th, the electronics company had to allow app programmers to guide their users to alternative payment methods using links.
Epic, the developer of the popular video game Fortnite, had filed the relevant lawsuit and won in the first instance.
The appeals court has now granted the iPhone manufacturer a delay.
Winand von Petersdorff-Campen
Business correspondent in Washington.
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In the first instance, the responsible judge had come to the conclusion that Apple had not violated any antitrust law, but a competition law of the state of California.
The appellate court has doubts about the judgment and therefore does not consider the order to change the very lucrative app store until December 9th as justified.
Apple can now postpone the changes until the actual appeal proceedings against the first instance judgment have ended.
It can take years.
In addition, according to legal experts, Apple can now hope that the appeals court will decide the case in its favor.
For Epic, the decision is a setback.
The company had opposed the practice of Apple to automatically divert 30 percent of the proceeds from the use of Fortnite for itself.
That's why Epic gave users who want to play Fortnite on the iPhone or iPad the option of clicking a button to access a payment method outside of Apple Pay.
Apple responded by removing Fortnite from its app store.
A court upheld the move as lawful, but dismissed Apple's lawsuit against Epic.
At the same time, the game developer also sued Google for similar reasons.
Democratic senators recently tabled a bill that would prohibit Apple from forcing all app users into its payment system.