May 7 (Reuters) - Apple ( AAPL ) has asked a federal

appeals court to temporarily pause key provisions in a U.S.

judge's ruling that ordered the tech company to immediately open

its lucrative App Store to more competition.

Apple ( AAPL ) told the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of

Appeals in a filing on Wednesday that it will be irreparably

harmed if the April 30 order is not put on hold while the iPhone

maker's legal challenge is pending.

Apple ( AAPL ) is fighting a ruling that found the company in

contempt of an earlier order in a 2020 antitrust lawsuit brought

by Epic Games, maker of the online video game Fortnite.

In its filing, Apple ( AAPL ) said the new ruling blocks the company

from "exercising control over core aspects of its business

operations."

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ordered Apple ( AAPL ) to

end several practices that she said were designed to circumvent

the injunction. Apple's ( AAPL ) filing focused on two of them, including

the court's ban on a new 27% fee Apple ( AAPL ) imposed on app developers

when its customers complete an app purchase outside the App

Store.

Apple ( AAPL ) in its filing said a federal court can't "force Apple ( AAPL )

to permanently give away free access to its products and

services."

Apple ( AAPL ) is also challenging part of the judge's order that

bars the company from restricting where developers place links

to make purchases outside of an app.

Epic Games did not immediately respond to a request for

comment.

In the underlying lawsuit, Epic Games sued Apple ( AAPL ) to loosen

its control over transactions in applications that use its iOS

operating system and how apps are distributed to consumers.

The Cupertino, California-based company willfully failed to

comply with a 2021 injunction in the case designed to allow

developers to more easily steer consumers to potentially cheaper

non-Apple ( AAPL ) payment options, Gonzalez Rogers said in her decision.

"Apple ( AAPL ) sought to maintain a revenue stream worth billions in

direct defiance of this court's injunction," Gonzalez Rogers

wrote.

Gonzalez Rogers 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.