SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A three-judge appeals panel rejected Apple's request to pause an April 30 order banning the company from charging a fee on in-app iPhone transactions processed outside its once-exclusive payment system in a two-page decision issued late Thursday.

The setback threatens to divert billions of dollars in revenue away from Apple while it tried to overturn the order reining in its commissions from e-commerce within iPhone apps.

Apple sought to put the order on hold after it was issued by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers in a stinging rebuke that also held the Cupertino, California, company in civil contempt of court and recommended opening a criminal investigation into whether one of its executives had committed perjury while testifying in her Oakland, California

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