Epic Games’ Mega Popular Fortnite is pledged to return to the US iOS app store next week after receiving an astonishing ruling in a long-standing legal battle with Apple.
The controversy between Epic and Apple began in 2020, when Apple removed Epic Games from the iOS App Store. As Apple accounts for 30% of all in-app purchases, Epic introduced direct payment support in Fortnite to bypass Apple’s fees. The following year, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers determined that Apple could not prevent developers like EPIC from adding links for customers to purchase digital products outside of the iOS ecosystem.
But almost four years later, on Wednesday evening, the same judge said in the ruling that it was in a “willful violation” of an injunction that allowed Apple to refer developers to payment methods that are not subject to Apple’s fees.
“I thought this court would tolerate such disobedience being merciless. As usual, the cover-up made it worse. For this court, there’s no second bite on the apple,” Rogers said.
Even at the time of the 2021 ruling, Fortnite did not return to the iOS App Store. At the time, EPIC CEO Tim Sweeney said that it would come back if the app could “provide in-app payments in a fair competition with Apple In-App payments and hand the savings to consumers.”
However, after Rogers’ unexpected ruling this week, Sweeney said Fortnite will eventually be available again to US iOS users.
“Apple’s 15-30% junk rate is as dead in the United States as they are in Europe under the Digital Markets Act. It’s illegal here, and it’s illegal,” Sweeney wrote, noting that it took four years, four months and 17 days to reach this point.
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But Sweeney pushes Apple to extend US domination around the world, then bring Fortnite back to the App Store globally. This seems unlikely to happen to Apple, given its plans to appeal this ruling.