The current legal battle between the Epic and Apple Games made another decision before the United States court after a judge ordered Apple to cease to enforce its App Store committee.
The American district judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ordered Apple to stop applying his 27% commission on the App Store after the company had voluntarily violated an injunction of the court in an antitrust case filed by Fortnite Manufacturer’s epic games. The injunction in question – written by judge Gonzalez Rogers in 2021 – was intended to “retain and prohibit the anti -competitive driving of the iPhone manufacturer”.
Apple recently won a decision in the current case, with a judge refusing to hear calls on the antitrust issue, leaving Epic Games to assume the financial burden in 2024. At the time, the CEO of EPIC Games, Tim Sweeney, said: “The Battle of the Court to open iOS to shops and competing payments is lost in the United States. A sad consequence for all developers. ” However, Sweeney seems to have changed his air in the light of the last decision.
Judge Gonzalez Rogers wrote: “Apple’s continuous attempts to interfere with competition will not be tolerated”, in the decision taken on Wednesday. She also ordered that Apple “no longer hinders the ability of developers to communicate with users, and they will not allow a new commission on off -application purchases”.
His decision continued: “In contrast striking with the initial testimony of the Apple, contemporary trade documents reveal that Apple knew exactly what he was doing and at each turn of the most anti-competitive option”, adding an accusation that Apple’s vice-president, Alex Roman, lied under Oath.
In a declaration at CBSAn Apple spokesman said: “We are strongly disagreed with the decision. We will comply with the court order and we will call. ” Unlike his 2024 comments, Sweeney now seems open to work with Apple after the decision.
In a press release from Game activity After the court’s decision, Sweeney said: “We have been one of Apple’s best partners for more than a decade, from the point that we have released Infinite blade For iOS and make unreal support for unreal engine until we started to fight them in 2020. A good decade of impressive partnership. We hope that now the law is classified, and the legal obligations of Apple under these laws on consumer protection being clear, and now, Apple is forced by the court to adhere to it, that we hope that we can rest our dispute. »»
He continued with “I have been fighting on Apple for a long time. But I am an iPhone client. It’s a great device. I love having it. I do not like policies that Apple has developed with regard to stores, but there is a lot of respect for Epic towards the quality of Apple’s history.
The peace proposal proposed by the Epic Games says that if Apple complies with the judge’s decision on a global scale, the epic games will bring Fortnite Back to the iOS platform, ironically, via the global scale app. Epic Games would also abandon all disputes against Apple (although they lost the appeal decision in 2024) if they were conducted. But it remains to be seen if they will or will.
