June 4 (Reuters) - Apple ( AAPL ) has failed to persuade

a U.S. appeals court to pause key parts of a federal judge's

order requiring the iPhone maker to immediately open its

lucrative App Store to more competition.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday rejected

Apple's ( AAPL ) request to put the provisions on hold as the tech giant

appeals the judge's order, which came in a long-running

antitrust lawsuit brought by "Fortnite" maker Epic Games.

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in April found

Apple ( AAPL ) in contempt of an earlier injunction order she

issued in the Epic Games case.

The judge on April 30 ordered Apple ( AAPL ) to end several practices

that she said were designed to circumvent the injunction,

including a new 27% fee Apple ( AAPL ) imposed on app developers when its

customers complete an app purchase outside the App Store.

The court also prohibited Apple ( AAPL ) from restricting where

developers place links to make purchases outside of an app.

In its emergency appeal, Apple ( AAPL ) said the ruling blocked the

company from "exercising control over core aspects of its

business operations" and forced it to give away free access to

its services.

Epic Games countered that Apple ( AAPL ) was trying to continue

evading competition and collecting fees that the judge had

barred.

Apple ( AAPL ) has faced a "surge of genuine competition" since

Gonzalez Rogers issued her April injunction, as developers

updated apps with "better payment methods, better deals, and

better consumer choice," Epic said.

Epic Games sued Apple ( AAPL ) in 2020 to loosen its control over

transactions in applications that use its iOS operating system

and how apps are distributed to consumers.

Apple ( AAPL ) mostly won the case, but Gonzalez Rogers in 2021 said

Apple ( AAPL ) must allow developers to more easily steer consumers to

potentially cheaper non-Apple ( AAPL ) payment options.

Apple ( AAPL ) defied that court order to maintain a revenue stream

worth billions of dollars, Gonzalez Rogers wrote in April.

She also said Apple ( AAPL ) had misled the court about its efforts

to comply with her injunction and referred the company and one

of its executives to federal prosecutors for a possible criminal

contempt investigation.