![]() ![]() On this point, the judge sided with Epic Games, saying that Apple can no longer prohibit developers from pointing to other means of payment beyond Apple’s own payment systems. But the one area where Apple lost ground was in what sort of rules it can make for its own App Store. A representative for Apple stated that “the Court has affirmed what we’ve known all along: the App Store is not in violation of antitrust law.” Meanwhile, Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games stated that the ruling “isn’t a win for developers or for consumers.” He also declared that Epic will not be bringing Fortnite back to the App Store until the company’s allowed to offer its in-app payment alternative.A federal judge declared last month that Apple was not a monopolist when issuing the court’s decision on California’s Epic Games v. Rather, it was mostly a duopoly alongside Google.Įpic was then ruled to pay Apple $3.6 million, which is 30% of the revenue withheld from Apple in the game company’s attempts to circumvent the App Store. Judge Rogers also ruled that wasn’t really a monopoly as Epic had alleged. That one count which was not in favour of Apple blocked Apple from preventing developers to add links within their apps to third-party forms of payments. ![]() The lawsuit dragged on for over a year until 10 September 2021, when Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers issued a ruling favouring Apple on nine out of ten counts brought against the company. This, in turn, would’ve hurt a lot of developers that relied on the engine. Epic losing access to the engine would’ve resulted in its obsolescence on Apple devices since the company wouldn’t have been able to take care of it. This is because Epic develops and supports Unreal Engine – a 3D graphics game engine that’s the backbone of a huge catalogue of games. Prior to the ruling, a number of companies including Microsoft had backed Epic’s requests to reverse the ban on its developer accounts. However, the same ruling ordered Apple to unblock Epic’s developer accounts, so not all was lost for the game developer. Right from the start, it appeared that Epic was not doing well in the case, with the judge ruling in Apple’s favour in keeping Fortnite off the App Store. He sued Apple and Google, and launched a #FreeFortnite campaign that went as far as promoting a boycott of Apple products. Google pulled a similar move.Įpic CEO Tim Sweeney believed that the 30% fee was exorbitant and that users should have the option to purchase through other mediums. Immediately after, Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store and suspended Epic’s developer account, citing a violation of its in-app payments policy. With this addition, Epic circumvented Apple’s 30% cut on purchases made through the App Store. This alternate way allowed players to avail of special discounts on some in-game items, which could otherwise not be applied. The drama began after Epic introduced an alternate way for iPhone and Android users to purchase “V-Bucks” – an in-game currency of its super-popular battle royale game called Fortnite. So in this article, we look back at all that’s unravelled so far and what lies ahead in the Epic Games vs Apple case. A lot has happened since the case kicked off back in August 2020, and if you’re having trouble keeping track of it all, then that’s because there’s indeed a lot to keep track of. But it wasn’t a complete victory for Apple either, as the company was ordered to remove its anti-steering rules that banned developers from telling users about alternatives to Apple’s in-app purchase system.īoth companies are now attempting to get the ruling overturned in their favour. ![]() The videogame publisher was obviously unhappy with the verdict as it had wanted Apple to allow third-party payments, which would’ve helped it increase its revenue. Epic had alleged anti-competitive behaviour on part of Apple, accusing the tech giant of monopolistic practices. Apple and Epic Games are returning to the court following last year’s verdict which ruled in favour of the former on 9 out of 10 counts. ![]()
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