The judges ignored the long legal fight between the iPhone maker and Epic Games, the creator of the hit video game "Fortnite."

The judges also snubbed Epic's appeal of the lower court's ruling that Apple's App Store policies on how software is sold and paid for do not break federal antitrust laws. The judges gave no reasons for their decision to reject the appeals.

In a series of posts on X, Epic boss Tim Sweeney wrote: “The Supreme Court turned down both sides' appeals of the Epic v. Apple antitrust case.”

This means that the court battle to open iOS to rival stores and payments is lost in the United States which his sad result for developers.

However, it also means that the District Court's order against Apple's anti-steering rule is in place, and developers can put in their apps "buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to buying methods, in addition to IAP."

From today, developers can start using their court-given right to tell US customers about cheaper prices on the web. It means that awful Apple-forced confusion screens are gone for good.

The fight is going on in the civilised world. Regulators are taking action and lawmakers around the world are passing new laws to stop Apple's illegal and unfair app store practices. The European Union's Digital Markets Act starts on 7 March and Apple has been forced to play ball.