The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear Apple’s challenge to a civil contempt ruling issued as part of its ongoing antitrust battle with Fortnite developer Epic Games.

Apple argues that it cannot be held in contempt for allegedly violating the spirit of the ruling in question, which involved Apple’s fees for purchases made outside its App Store, without violating an express provision.

It said the matter was an “important question of law”.

Epic said it would fight the “junk fees Apple charges on third-party payments”, noting that lower courts had found the fees to be “illegal and anticompetitive”.

The Supreme Court is expected to hear the case in its next term, which begins in October.

Epic brought its case against Apple in 2020, arguing the company’s rules barring app developers from taking payments via third-party systems were illegal.

US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, based in Oakland, California federal court, found Apple had violated California law and ordered Apple to allow developers to direct users to third-party payment systems outside the App Store.

The decision was upheld by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals and the US Supreme Court.

Apple did so, but instituted new fees of 27 percent for payments made outside the App Store.

Gonzalez Rogers found this violated her earlier ruling, ordered Apple to stop charging commissions, and referred the case to federal prosecutors to investigate whether Apple committed criminal contempt of court.

The 9th Circuit upheld the contempt finding, but said Apple should be allowed to impose charges, and told Gonzalez Rogers to consider new arguments from the company over an “appropriate” level of compensation.

Those new proceedings have not yet begun in Oakland district court court.

Apple also asked the Supreme Court to hear a challenge to whether Gonzalez Rogers’ injunction should be applied to developers outside the US. The Supreme Court declined to take up that question.