Epic Games and Apple have been locked in a battle (royale) over developer fees for a while now, and it seems things are looking up for the latter. After scoring a win in an ongoing legal dispute with the Cupertino giant, its juggernaut shooter Fortnite will return to the iOS App Store in the U.S.
“We will return Fortnite to the US iOS App Store next week,” CEO Tim Sweeney wrote on X/Twitter. “Epic puts forth a peace proposal: If Apple extends the court’s friction-free, Apple-tax-free framework worldwide, we’ll return Fortnite to the App Store worldwide and drop current and future litigation on the topic.”
The ruling comes after a District Court in California found that Apple was not only “in willful violation” of a 2021 injunction prohibiting the company from blocking third-party payment options, but also collected a 27 percent fee on transactions made outside of the iOS store.
“For the reasons set forth herein, the Court finds Apple in willful violation of this Court’s 2021 Injunction which issued to restrain and prohibit Apple’s anticompetitive conduct and anticompetitive pricing,” court documents read. “Apple’s continued attempts to interfere with competition will not be tolerated.”
The legal warring between both parties can be traced back to August 2020, when Fortnite and other Epic Games titles were officially booted from the App Store. After being suspended, the game developer filed a lawsuit against Apple, with the pair going to court in 2021. The tech giant largely won, but was also ordered to remove its anti-steering measures, such that apps downloaded from the App Store must direct customers to third-party means.
Apple appealed the decision later that year, which it eventually won after proceedings took place from 2022 to 2023. In the process, however, the court upheld its anti-steering ruling from 2021, resulting in the current predicament. An Apple spokesperson said the company “strongly disagree(s) with the decision” and intends to comply with the order while appealing it.
Effectively immediately, the tech juggernaut can no longer impose fees, dictate how developers direct users to third-party options and platforms, and use “scare screens” to dissuade them from leaving the app.
“What this does is it forces Apple to compete with other payment services, rather than blocking them,” said Sweeney. “This is what we wanted all along. We’ve always acknowledged Apple’s right to operate their own store; their right to operate their own payment service. We’ve just always wanted a level playing field in which developers can compete with Apple to offer their own products, and then consumers are free to choose the best, and let the best product win.”
Other companies affected by Apple’s policy, including Spotify, have celebrated the ruling as Epic Games forges ahead with ongoing lawsuits against Google and Samsung.
“This landmark court ruling is a victory for developers everywhere. Spotify will move quickly to submit an app update to Apple, enhancing the experience for our consumers across the United States,” the digital music service expressed in a statement.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
Kevin Low
