Back in 2020, Epic Games accused Apple of being an unlawful monopoly by taxing developers 30% of their online purchases. The video game developer filed an antitrust suit against the company, while Apple deleted Epics account from App store. Since then Apple and Epic have been involved in an ongoing legal battle.
Well today’s ruling seems to be a major win for Epic. Northern District of California court issued a ruling against Apple, directing them to stop enforcing extra fees on purchases made outside of apps. The court has found Apple in willful violation of its 2021 Injunction which issued to restrain and prohibit Apple’s anticompetitive conduct and anticompetitive pricing.
In the ruling, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers mentioned, “This is an injunction, not a negotiation. There are no do-overs once a party willfully disregards a court order. Time is of the essence. The Court will not tolerate further delays. As previously ordered, Apple will not impede competition. The Court enjoins Apple from implementing its new anticompetitive acts to avoid compliance with the Injunction. Effective immediately, Apple will no longer impede developers’ ability to communicate with users, nor will they levy or impose a new commission on off-app purchases.”
After this decision, Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney announced that Fortnite will return to the US iOS App Store next week. However, no actual date is announced.
We will return Fortnite to the US iOS App Store next week.
Epic puts forth a peace proposal: If Apple extends the court's friction-free, Apple-tax-free framework worldwide, we'll return Fortnite to the App Store worldwide and drop current and future litigation on the topic. https://t.co/bIRTePm0Tv
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) April 30, 2025
Epic has also put forth a peace proposal and said that if Apple extends the courts friction-free, Apple-tax-free framework worldwide, Fortnite will be returned to App Store worldwide and drop current and future litigation on the topic.
Let’s see if Apple agrees to the proposal given by Epic Games or if this legal battle continues further.
