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Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple Inc., center, arrives at U.S. district court in Oakland, California, on Friday, May 21, 2021.
Nina Riggio | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Apple filed a notice of appeal in the Epic Games case and is asking for a stay on the injunction that lets developers add in-app links to payment websites, according to company representatives and documents filed on Friday.

If Apple wins the stay, which will be decided by a judge in November, a rule change potentially allowing developers to circumvent App Store fees of 15% to 30% may not take effect until appeals in the case have finished, a process that could take years.

Federal judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled in September in favor of Apple for nine of 10 counts in an antitrust trial brought by Epic, the maker of Fortnite. Epic was seeking the ability to install its own app store on iPhones. Kate Adams, Apple’s general counsel, said at the time the ruling was a “huge win.”

But Apple was also ordered to make a major change to its store and allow mobile apps to steer consumers to outside payment methods, providing a way to potentially evade Apple’s App Store fees.

That injunction is currently scheduled to go into effect on Dec. 9.

Apple hasn’t publicly explained how its App Store policies would change under the order, but some developers have already started to build software based on their interpretation of the ruling.

“At a high level, it is my judgment that, without thoughtful restrictions in place to protect consumers, developers, and the iOS platform, this change will harm users, developers, and the iOS platform more generally,” Trystan Kosmynka, Apple’s senior director of App Review, said in a filing on Friday.

Apple may be able to change its App Store policy and engage in discussions with the judge, eliminating the need for an injunction, Apple representatives said.

In the past year, Apple has made several small concessions to critics of its app distribution rules in response to lawsuits and regulatory attention as part of a strategy to limit more major changes to its App Store. Apple has argued that it should be able to decide what software is allowed to operate on iPhones in order to deliver what the company says is a better user experience.

In a filing describing its reasoning for the stay, Apple cites some concessions it made as part of a separate settlement with small developers in August. That settlement is still pending Judge Rogers’ approval.

“The requested stay will allow Apple to protect consumers and safeguard its platform while the company works through the complex and rapidly evolving legal, technological, economic issues that any revisions to this Guideline would implicate,” Apple lawyers said in a court filing.

The judge also ordered Epic to pay damages to Apple. Epic Games filed a notice of appeal in September. An Epic Games representative wasn’t immediately available for comment.

If app makers are ultimately able to bill their own customers directly, without using Apple’s in-app purchase system, it would threaten a profit engine for the company. The App Store is part of the company’s services business, which reported $53.8 billion in sales during fiscal 2020 at a 66% gross margin, accounting for about 20% of Apple’s revenue.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.

WATCH: Discord founder and CEO on Apple vs. Epic Games


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Musk, Thiel, Bannon named in partially redacted Epstein documents released by Democrats

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Musk, Thiel, Bannon named in partially redacted Epstein documents released by Democrats

Charges against Jeffrey Epstein were announced on July 8, 2019 in New York City. Epstein will be charged with one count of sex trafficking of minors and one count of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of minors.

Stephanie Keith | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and former Trump White House advisor Steve Bannon are among those who appeared in partially redacted files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that were released on Friday by Democrats in the House Oversight Committee.

The committee earlier embarked on a probe to evaluate whether the federal government mishandled its case against Epstein and co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence following a 2022 conviction for recruiting teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein.

President Donald Trump had promised voters on the campaign trail that he would release government documents related to Epstein, who was arrested in the summer of 2019 on sex trafficking charges and died in a New York federal prison, reportedly by suicide, before trial.

However, Trump has refused to endorse the release of any Epstein files since returning to the White House in January, and Republicans in Congress have followed his lead, keeping the documents out of the public’s view.

Democrats in the committee on Friday released redacted pages from a new batch of files they obtained through their probe without giving their Republican peers advanced notice. They were rebuked for the move.

In a statement on Friday, the committee said that the batch included 8,544 documents in response to a subpoena in August, and that, “Further review of the documents, which were redacted to protect the identity of victims, is ongoing.”

The latest batch of documents received by the committee from the Justice Department contained itineraries and notes by Epstein memorializing invitations he’d sent, trips he’d planned and meetings he’d booked with tech and business leaders.

Demonstrators gather for a press conference calling for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files outside the United States Captiol on Wednesday September 03, 2025 in Washington, DC.

The Washington Post | The Washington Post | Getty Images

One of the itineraries indicated that Epstein expected Musk to make a trip to his private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands on Dec. 6, 2014, but then asked “is this still happening?”

Musk told Vanity Fair in 2019 that he had visited Epstein’s New York City mansion and that Epstein “tried repeatedly to get me to visit his island,” but the Tesla CEO had declined.

In June, Musk wrote in a post on X, that he thought Trump and his administration were withholding Epstein-related files from the public view in order to protect the president’s reputation.

“Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files,” Musk, who was in the midst of a public spat with the president, wrote at the time. “That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!”

Trump was mentioned in previously released court documents from the Epstein case, but has not been formally accused of wrongdoing.

Musk started the year leading the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an effort to slash the size of the federal government and reduce the power of various regulatory agencies. He left DOGE in May, and he and the president proceeded to hurl insults at each other in public over a number of disagreements.

However, Trump and Musk remain close enough that they sat together at a memorial service for Charlie Kirk earlier this month after the right-wing activist was assassinated while speaking at a university in Utah.

The partially redacted files also indicated Epstein had breakfast with Bannon on Feb. 16, 2019, and lunch with investor Peter Thiel on Nov. 27, 2017. Bannon is a long-time Trump ally, and Thiel was a major backer of Trump ahead of the 2016 election who spoke at the Republican National Convention.

The files also mentioned that Epstein booked a “tentative breakfast party” with Microsoft founder Bill Gates, historically a supporter of Democrats, in December 2014.

Musk, Thiel, Bannon and Gates weren’t immediately available for comment.

WATCH: House Speaker Mike Johnson on Epstein files

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Epstein files: We want the American people to see it

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Trump calls for the firing of Lisa Monaco, Microsoft president of global affairs

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Trump calls for the firing of Lisa Monaco, Microsoft president of global affairs

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco speaks as Attorney General Merrick Garland looks on after announcing an antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation Entertainment during a press conference at the Department of Justice in Washington, U.S., May 23, 2024. 

Ken Cedeno | Reuters

President Donald Trump on Friday demanded that Microsoft fire Lisa Monaco, an executive who served as deputy attorney general during the Biden administration.

The request appeared on Trump’s Truth Social account, which has 10 million followers. It comes one day after former FBI Director James Comey was indicted, days after Trump pushed to prosecute him.

“She is a menace to U.S. National Security, especially given the major contracts that Microsoft has with the United States Government,” Trump wrote in the post. “Because of Monaco’s many wrongful acts, the U.S. Government recently stripped her of all Security Clearances, took away all of her access to National Security Intelligence, and banned her from all Federal Properties.”

Microsoft declined to comment.

Parts of the U.S. government use Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure and productivity software. Earlier this month, Microsoft agreed to offer $3.1 billion in savings in one year on cloud services for agencies to use.

Earlier on Friday, Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo published an X post about Monaco joining Microsoft. The appointment happened in July, according to Monaco’s LinkedIn profile. The post contained a link to a July article on the University of Chicago law school’s website.

On Thursday, Microsoft said it would cut off cloud-based storage and artificial intelligence subscriptions to a unit of the Israeli military, after investigating a claim that the division had built a system to track Palestinians’ phone calls.

On Monday, Trump is set to meet with Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, NBC News reported.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella attended a dinner alongside other technology executives at the White House earlier this month.

Read more CNBC tech news

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Electronic Arts stock closes up 15% on report company near $50 billion deal to go private

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Electronic Arts stock closes up 15% on report company near  billion deal to go private

Dado Ruvic | Reuters

Shares of Electronic Arts closed up 15% on Friday following a report in the Wall Street Journal that the video game company is nearing a roughly $50 billion deal to go private.

Investors including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Silver Lake could announce the deal as soon as next week, the report said. PIF has been pouring billions of dollars into gaming, purchasing the makers of Pokemon Go and the parent company behind Monopoly Go, for example.

Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners is another participating investor, according to a source familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private.

The deal would be the largest leveraged buyout in Wall Street history, surpassing the agreement to take TXU Energy private for about $45 billion in 2007. A leveraged buyout (LBO) is when debt is predominately used for an acquisition, a tactic traditionally used by private equity firms or activists.

EA makes popular video games including The Sims, Madden NFL, the soccer game FC, formerly known as FIFA. With Friday’s gains, the stock is up about 32% for the year.

EA did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

WATCH: CNBC’s interview with EA CEO Andrew Wilson

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