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‘Fortnite’ Remains Excluded from the Apple App Store
For more than a year now, Apple has been involved in an ongoing legal dispute with Epic Games, the creator and distributor of the famous Battle Royale multiplayer game, Fortnite. The game was removed from the Apple App Store last August when Epic attempted to establish their own payment system to circumvent the commission-based payment setup Apple mandates for App Store applications. This led to a widespread campaign led by Epic criticizing the App Store as a monopoly, receiving support from various small-scale app developers facing similar issues.
Ultimately, the issue was taken to court, and earlier this month, a judge in California made a decision: Apple is now prohibited from prohibiting apps that try to guide users towards alternative payment methods. However, it was not a complete victory for Epic, as the court did not label the App Store as a monopoly, nor did it find fault with Apple’s decision to exclude Fortnite from their platform.
Following such an extensive legal battle, the lingering question was: will Apple readmit Fortnite to their platform? To no one’s surprise, the answer is negative. In response to Epic’s request for reinstatement, an Apple attorney stated that the company “has chosen not to restore Epic’s developer program account at this point.”
“Moreover, Apple will not entertain any appeals for reinstatement until the district court’s ruling is finalized and cannot be appealed,” the attorney added. Just to clarify, this procedure could extend up to five years.
Apple notified Epic late last night that Fortnite will remain banned from the Apple ecosystem until all legal appeals are exhausted, spanning a potential 5-year duration. pic.twitter.com/QCD7wogJef
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) September 22, 2021
Epic CEO Tim Sweeny criticized Apple’s action in a series of tweets, labeling it as “yet another exceptional anticompetitive action.”
“Apple deceived us,” he remarked. “Epic complied, and now Apple has backtracked with another demonstration of its monopoly authority over a billion users.”
Apple has declined to provide a response to Sweeny’s comments.
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