Apple scores another victory in the battle of the App Store against Epic Games

Apple again wins its antitrust-focused appeals court battle against Fortnite maker Epic Games over its App Store policies.

A lot has happened since Epic Games’ case against Apple began in August 2020. Fortnite, as you already know, is a free-to-play game that relies primarily on in-app purchases for revenue. Apple takes a hefty chunk of that, around 30%, and Epic doesn’t want to pay the ‘Apple tax’.

The reality is that Apple and Google have a clause that specifies that applications cannot use their own payment solutions, since everything must go through the store in question. They allege security reasons and, in the end, they are the ones hosting the app, but as always this means that the user is left without a game or service.

The drama began after Epic introduced an alternative way for iPhone and Android users to purchase “V-Bucks.”, an in-game currency from their super popular battle royale game called Fortnite. This alternative way allowed players to take advantage of special discounts on some in-game items, which could not otherwise be applied.

All of this resulted in the game being removed from the iOS App Store and a sequence of various lawsuits. Well, now the news is that Apple, again, wins the appellate court ruling in the App Store’s legal battle with Epic Games.

Apple wins but Epic Games doesn’t give up

The ruling is a big setback for Epic Games and other developers that they hoped this could set a precedent for more antitrust claims and require Apple to open up iOS devices to third-party app stores and payment systems.

“Today’s decision reaffirms Apple’s overwhelming victory in this case, as nine out of ten claims have been decided in Apple’s favor. For the second time in two years, a federal court has ruled that Apple complies with antitrust laws at the state level and federal”explains Apple.

Although Apple had largely won the lawsuit when the judge declared that Apple was not acting as a monopoly, the court sided with the maker of Fortnite in the matter of policies against Apple’s direction regarding restrictions on the in-app purchases.

Although Apple seems to still control apps installed through the App Storethe Cupertino firm has made several changes over the years to address complaints from developers.

In the European Union, on the other hand, the Digital Markets Law will make the company open its system for third-party app stores next year, which will arrive with iOS 17.