Legal battle between Apple and Epic continues as Apple denies to act on the Fortnite app review
We are all aware of the legal battle between Epic and Apple that started back in 2020. Last month, the Northern District of California court found that Apple had willfully violated the Court’s September 10, 2021, order and held Apple in contempt, directing them to stop enforcing extra fees on purchases made outside of apps.
As instructed by the court, at the beginning of this month, Apple updated its App Store policies, allowing iOS developers to link out payments as well as encourage alternative payment methods. After the court’s decision, Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney announced that Fortnite will return to the US iOS App Store in the second week of May. But seems like the rift between Epic and Apple about the Fortnite app is not resolved even after the court’s ruling.
Yesterday afternoon, Apple broke its week-long silence on the status of our app review with a letter saying they will not act on the Fortnite app submission until the Ninth Circuit Court rules on the partial stay. We believe this violates the Court’s Injunction and we have filed…
— Epic Games Newsroom (@EpicNewsroom) May 17, 2025
Epic has filed a second Motion to Enforce Injunction with the US District Court for the Northern District of California. In the filing, the company mentioned that, on May 1, Epic notified Apple of its intent to avail itself of the Injunction and the new guidelines while they also notified that Epic would use the same developer account that it uses to distribute the Epic Games Store and Fortnite in EU to submit Fortnite for App Review in the US, to which Apple agreed.
On May 9, Epic submitted for review a build on the Fortnite app that fully complies with all applicable App Review guidelines. Epic mentioned in the above post that Apple’s solution required submitting two versions of Fortnite, in violation of their guidelines that developers shouldn’t submit multiple versions of the same app. Apple did not act on Epic’s submission for five full days and then on May 15, Apple informed Epic via a letter that it has determined not to take action on the Fortnite app submission until after the Ninth Circuit rules on [Apple’s] pending request for a partial stay of the [Contempt Order].
Epic stated that the decision of Apple to block Fortnite is a clear violation of the Injunction and therefore the company seeks an order enforcing the Injunction, and requiring Apple to promptly accept any compliant Epic app, including Fortnite, for distribution on the US storefront of the App Store.
