U.S. Appeals Court Rules on App Store Injunction, Both Sides Can Claim Victories, Thoughts on Fees for App Link-Outs
Today's Above Avalon Daily update includes the following stories:
U.S. Appeals Court Rules on App Store Injunction
Both Sides Can Claim Victories
Thoughts on Fees for App Link-Outs
This is one of those days in which a breaking story changed plans and the schedule. Yesterday afternoon, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its ruling on the April 2025 App Store anti-steering injunction decision. Today’s update will be dedicated to analyzing the ruling and the accompanying implications. There’s a lot to unpack. We begin with the ruling itself. The discussion then turns to why Neil thinks both sides can claim a victory with the ruling. The update then turns to what may happen with Apple’s fees / commissions applied to app link-outs.
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Apple Requests App Store Stay Motion, The Four-Prong Test, Apple’s Odds of Success
Hello everyone.
Last week, Apple filed an emergency motion for a partial stay pending its appeal of the App Store anti-steering injunction ruling. In layman’s terms, Apple is asking the appeals court to temporarily halt some of Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers' App Store directives while Apple’s appeal works through the system. While the appeal will take at least six months to play out, this emergency motion should be addressed by the court this month.
Taking a step back from this motion, the broader App Store injunction ruling and the ongoing Google search antitrust case are weighing on Apple in terms of Wall Street (concerns regarding financial impact) and Main Street (concerns regarding customer experience impact). You can feel the angst in the air. Apple’s stay motion, if granted, will reduce some of that angst.
One quick note before jumping into today's update: I launched Above Avalon membership 10 years today. May 13th, 2015. Over the past 10 years, ~1,900 daily updates have been published. Today's daily podcast episode was the 850th episode. A big thank you to all members, especially those who have been with me since Day 1.
Let’s jump in.
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Judge Gonzalez Rogers’ App Store Pretzels, The Case for Apple’s Appeal, Potential App Store Fallout
Hello everyone. Happy Tuesday. There is a lot to go over in today’s update. We will continue our discussion from yesterday involving the latest App Store ruling from Judge Gonzalez Rogers.
The plan is to use Wednesday’s update to circle back to Apple’s 2Q25 earnings review.
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Apple Receives App Store Gut Punch in U.S., The Absurdity of It All, An App Store Dilemma
Hello everyone. Last Friday’s update was focused on Apple’s 2Q25 earnings. We will continue my earnings review later this week.
My full notes from last week's App Store anti-steering court ruling came out to about a week’s worth of updates. The 80-page ruling can be found here. Instead of spending four updates on the topic, my notes will be consolidated into two updates. For today, we are going to tackle a few major points that have been on my mind the past few days. Tomorrow’s update will discuss the points in greater detail. This is a crazy development that is up there as one of the more unusual turn of events that Apple has faced.
Let’s jump in.
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Become an Above Avalon member and receive the following privileges and benefits:
Exclusive Analysis. Receive the Above Avalon Daily newsletter, widely-recognized as the leading daily newsletter dedicated to Apple. Now in its tenth year.
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