Apple’s opening merits brief in Apple Inc. v. Epic Games, Inc., No. 25-1311, is due at the Supreme Court on Monday, September 14, 2026. It is the biggest item on Apple’s legal calendar this week, but not the only one. An amicus deadline follows directly from Monday’s filing, and two separate proceedings, one in New Jersey and one in London, sit at their own open questions with no date attached to either.
None of it touches the App Store’s underlying commission or steering rules. Cert in the Epic case was granted on one narrow procedural question, and the New Jersey and London matters run on entirely separate dockets, unconnected to Apple’s September hardware announcements or to iOS 27, which also arrives free on Monday, the same day rules for devices such as the iPhone 18 Pro and the iPhone Duo keep operating under an injunction none of this week’s filings change.
Key facts
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Case | Apple Inc. v. Epic Games, Inc., No. 25-1311 |
| Question under review | Question 1 only, the civil contempt sanction standard |
| Apple’s brief due | Monday, September 14, 2026 |
| Amicus window it opens | 7 days under Supreme Court Rule 37.3(a), to September 21, 2026 |
| Amicus briefs filed so far | One, filed June 3, 2026, at the certiorari stage |
| Epic’s response brief due | November 13, 2026 |
Monday’s brief and the window it opens
Apple’s brief addresses only the standard for imposing a civil contempt sanction, the single question the Court agreed in June to decide. It does not reopen the App Store’s commission structure or the link-out rules the Ninth Circuit already ruled on. Filing it starts a short clock of its own. Under Rule 37.3(a) of the Supreme Court’s own rules, an amicus curiae brief filed in support of the party whose brief has just been submitted is due within 7 days. That puts September 21, 2026 on the calendar as the deadline for anyone who wants to file in support of Apple’s position, and the rule states plainly that motions to extend that window will not be entertained.
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What the docket shows today
A check of the Supreme Court’s own public docket for No. 25-1311 on Sunday, September 13, 2026, shows no filing added since Justice Kagan denied Apple’s stay application on August 13, meaning none in the three days since September 11 either. The single amicus brief on file, filed June 3, 2026 by the Computer & Communications Industry Association and the organizations that joined it, was submitted under the Court’s separate certiorari-stage procedure, before the case had even been granted. That is a different filing track from the merits-stage rule that governs anything filed from Monday onward, and it does not count toward, or shorten, the amicus window Monday’s brief opens.
Two more threads, in New Jersey and London
Apple’s other active antitrust exposure runs on its own separate tracks. The Department of Justice’s civil monopolization suit against Apple, filed in the District of New Jersey in March 2024, is in discovery, with Judge Xavier Neals pointing toward a 2027 trial and no date yet set. A dispute over documents from federal agencies has been reported this month, though it is not yet something a primary docket lets us verify directly, so it stays a reported detail rather than a confirmed one. In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority’s own case page shows a call for evidence on developer access to NFC on the iPhone that opened June 30, 2026, with no closing date published as of today.
This week, dated
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| September 14, 2026 | Apple’s opening merits brief due at the Supreme Court |
| September 21, 2026 | Deadline for any amicus brief supporting Apple, under Rule 37.3(a) |
| No date set | DOJ discovery dispute pending before Judge Neals in New Jersey |
| No date set | CMA’s NFC call for evidence, open in London since June 30 |
| November 13, 2026 | Epic’s response brief due at the Supreme Court |
What Apple has not said
- The contents of Monday’s brief, ahead of its filing.
- Any public response to the reported DOJ discovery dispute.
- A position on the CMA’s open NFC question.
Today is Sunday, September 13, 2026. The docket for No. 25-1311 is the place to check once Monday’s brief is actually filed, and it is worth checking again after September 21 to see whether anyone filed in support of Apple in the window that date closes.
