A five -year legal battle between Tech Titans Apple and Epic Games could finally end.
After months of explosive back and forth which went as high as the Supreme Court, Apple restored the historic game of Epic Games, Fortnite, in its app store.
Fortnite – A free game that makes money with players spending money for flashy cosmetics – began to encourage users to bypass the iOS payment system of Apple and pay Epic directly in August 2020. This decision helped Epic to move around Apple Apple 30% feesA flat tax, he billed all developers to sell on the App Store.
Apple didn’t like it, as Fortnite had finished 116 million downloads via the App Store at the time. Apple argued that the EPIC payment portal violated the conditions of use of the App Store and removed the massively popular game from its platform.
In response, epic complaint Against Apple on antitrust terrains, launching a cheesy certainly “Fortnite free“Campaign, which nevertheless poses a serious question: does Apple have the right to restrict the access of developers to the billions of devices that exclusively use the IOS App Store?
This is a question that has taken years to answer, and more twists and turns than a viral dance of Fortnite. Apple a counterfeit Epic, requesting damages from the conditions of violation of the conditions of EPIC. In September 2021, judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers published a sharing decisiongoverning with Apple on nine out of ten accounts, but Assign to Epic a crucial injunction Order Apple to allow applications to create a link to external payment platforms.
In particular, Gonzalez Rogers discovered that Apple was not a monopoly, but rather a duopoly alongside Google, which was engaged in a similar legal battle With Epic on the Google Play Store. She also ordered Epic to pay Apple $ 3.6 million In damages.
Without satisfaction of the decision, the two companies appealed, ultimately increasing the question to the Supreme Court, which denied hear one or the other call. Obliged to allow developers to bypass Apple Pay, the company has reluctantly compared, but for warning. Apple has now forced developers to pay more than 27% of the income made within 7 days of each transaction – a tactic known as the name malicious compliance.
This, of course, generated another series of proceedings in March 2024, as Juror To continue the fight and prove that Apple was acting in bad faith.
Although Apple put a cooperative face when the next phase started, it would later emerge that the company’s managers held the documents, delayed the procedure, misleading the court and lied under oath.
On the last day of this trial, Epic introduced a Message series Between Apple’s senior public relations senior executives, showing the frustration of the technology giant to have to follow the law.
“How is it going again,” Hannah Smith, Apple communications worker wrote during a first day of trial.
“I have no idea. I am amazed,” replied Marni Goldberg, Director of Apple Public Affairs, and Former press secretary For Senator Joe Manchin. “This is our F **** store,” she was roaring in a message a few minutes later. “It’s really pissing me off.”
Knowing now exactly with whom she was dealing, judge Gonzalez Rogers delivered it Scathing decision April 30, 2025, finding Apple “in voluntary violation” of previous decisions of the Court.
“In contrast striking with the initial testimony of the Apple Court … The documents reveal that Apple knew exactly what he was doing and each turn chose the most anti -competitive option,” wrote Gonzalez Rogers.
“To hide the truth, vice-president of finance, Alex Roman, pure and simple lied under oath,” said the judge. Although Roman said that Apple had decided 27% fees in January 2024 – a second division decision after the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal – Other records Prove that the technology giant plotted it in July 2023.
The decision noted that the decision to ignore the injunction was as high as the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, who ignored the advice to follow the court’s decision, and rather opted for his “financial team”, which convinced him to follow the 27% of costs. As Gonzalez Rogers wrote: “Cook chose poorly.”
In one way or another, it was not enough hot water. After the decision of April 30, Apple began to quickly approve the updates to applications related to third -party payment platforms, according to Antitrust Matt Stoller journalist. However, there was an exception: Fortnite d’Epicthat Apple had “determined not to take measures on the submission of the application of Fortnite” only after all persistent legal calls.
Presumably at the end of his mind, Gonzalez Rogers emitted a brutal order of a pageRequire Apple made amends with Epic, to sacrifice an Apple framework for all the anger of the law.
“Obviously, Apple is fully able to solve this problem without any other briefing or audience,” said the judge. “However, if the parties do not file a joint opinion that this question is resolved and that the intervention of this court is required, the manager of Apple who is personally responsible for compliance must appear personally at the hearing.”
In the day of this final order, Folded appleAnd officially allowed Fortnite to return to the App Store (it is now estimated that the five -year legal battle cost Apple $ 1 billion In loss of income and legal fees.) Although the battle of calls rage always with Google, it is a major victory for software developers, publishers and telephone players around the world.
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