Epic Games filed discover that’s interesting a federal choose’s determination in a lawsuit alleging that Apple has been operating an unlawful monopoly that stifles competitors.

The maker of the favored Fortnite online game mentioned in a court docket submitting Sunday that it’s going to take the ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

In a 185-page determination rendered Friday, US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ordered Apple to dismantle a profitable a part of the aggressive barricade guarding its carefully run iPhone app retailer, however she rejected Epic’s allegations that Apple ran a monopoly.

Epic’s discover of attraction mentioned it will attraction the ultimate judgment “and all orders leading to or producing that judgment.”

The ruling continues to chip away on the so-called “walled garden” that Apple has constructed round its crown jewel, the iPhone, and its app retailer, with out toppling it fully.

The determination additionally supplied Apple with some vindication. The choose did not model Apple as a monopolist or require it to permit competing shops to supply apps for iPhone handsets, iPad gadgets, and iPods.

Those have been two of the largest targets sought by Epic, which filed what it will hoped could be a landmark antitrust case final yr after openly defying an unique cost system that funnels 15 % to 30 % of all in-app digital transactions on iPhone devices to Apple.

Such transactions can embody every little thing from Netflix or Spotify subscriptions to the sale of digital merchandise akin to songs, motion pictures or digital tchotchkes for video video games. Epic solid that extremely profitable charge as a price-gouging tactic that would not be doable if competing shops have been allowed to supply iPhone apps.

While elements of her determination raised questions on whether or not Apple’s charges have been driving up costs for customers, Gonzalez Rogers left the charge construction intact and upheld the corporate’s proper to dam different shops from providing apps for its iPhone. She sided with Apple on each different key level of the case.

But the choose did conclude Apple has been participating in unfair competitors below California regulation, prompting her to order the corporate to permit builders all through the US to insert hyperlinks to different cost choices in addition to its personal inside iPhone apps. That change would make it simpler for app builders to keep away from paying Apple’s commissions, doubtlessly affecting billions of {dollars} in income yearly.

Apple did its finest to border the choice as an entire victory, even because it acknowledged it could attraction the portion of the ruling that may make it simpler for app builders sidestep Apple’s commissions.