Epic Games achieved a victory in their current legal battle with Apple. This outcome might lead to
Fortnite
planning to return to the U.S. iOS app store as soon as the following week.
In a decision issued Wednesday, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers stated that Apple was in “deliberate breach” of a 2021 order prohibiting the company from engaging in anticompetitive pricing practices.
Apple emerged victorious in much of the Epic Games lawsuit. However, one significant defeat for them was a decision preventing Apple from charging fees on transactions occurring outside the applications directly. As a result, Apple was instructed at that point to modify its App Store policies so as to permit developers to guide customers towards making external website purchases instead.
Not only did Apple fail to comply, but it also acted “deliberately” and with the aim of establishing additional anticompetitive obstacles.
“That this court would accept such defiance was a significant error. Typically, the attempt to conceal exacerbated the situation. This court will not provide another opportunity,” Rogers stated in her decision. She also took the additional step of referring the matter to the U.S. attorney for consideration of potential criminal contempt charges.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney
took to X
to declare it would entail the
Fortnite
The game will return to the U.S. App Store as early as next week.
As
The Verge reported
, Sweeney proposed to Apple as well: “Should Apple extend the court’s seamless, tax-free structure globally, we will revert
Fortnite
“To the App Store globally and end all present and future legal actions regarding this matter,” he stated.