Apple and Epic Games are returning to the court following last year’s verdict, which ruled in favor of the former on 9 out of 10 counts. Epic had alleged anticompetitive behavior on the part of Apple, accusing the tech giant of monopolistic practices. The video game publisher was obviously unhappy with the verdict, as it had wanted Apple, to allow third-party payments, which would’ve helped it increase its revenue. But it wasn’t a complete victory for Apple, either, as the company was ordered to remove its anti-steering rules that banned developers from telling users about alternatives to Apple’s in-app purchase system.
Both companies are now attempting to get the ruling overturned in their favor. A lot has happened since the case kicked off back in August 2020, and if you’re having trouble keeping track of it all, then that’s because there’s indeed a lot to keep track of. So in this article, we look back at all that’s unraveled so far and what lies ahead in the Epic Games vs Apple case.
What’s happened so far
The drama began after Epic introduced an alternate way for iPhone and Android users to purchase “V-Bucks” – an in-game currency of its super-popular battle royale game called Fortnite. This alternate way allowed players to avail of special discounts on some in-game items, which could otherwise not be applied. With this addition, Epic circumvented Apple’s 30% cut on purchases made through the App Store. Immediately after, Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store and suspended Epic’s developer account, citing a violation of its in-app payment's policy. Google pulled a similar move.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney believed that the 30% fee was exorbitant and that users should have the option to purchase through other mediums. He sued Apple and Google, and launched a #FreeFortnite campaign that went as far as promoting a boycott of Apple products. Apple filed a countersuit against Epic.
Right from the start, it appeared that Epic was not doing well in the case, with the judge ruling in Apple’s favor in keeping Fortnite off the App Store. However, the same ruling ordered Apple to unblock Epic’s developer accounts, so not all was lost for the game developer. Prior to the ruling, a number of companies including Microsoft had backed Epic’s requests to reverse the ban on its developer accounts. This is because Epic develops and supports Unreal Engine – a 3D graphics game engine that’s the backbone of a huge catalog of games. Epic losing access to the engine would’ve resulted in its obsolescence on Apple devices, since the company wouldn’t have been able to take care of it. This, in turn, would’ve hurt a lot of developers that relied on the engine.
The previous verdict
The lawsuit dragged on for over a year until 10 September 2021, when Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers issued a ruling favoring Apple on nine out of ten counts brought against the company. That one count which was not in favor of Apple blocked Apple from preventing developers to add links within their apps to third-party forms of payments. Judge Rogers also ruled that it wasn’t really a monopoly, as Epic had alleged. Rather, it was mostly a duopoly alongside Google.
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