Apple turns to Supreme Court in legal battle with Epic Games

The saga started in 2020 continues on the highest legal level
Apple turns to Supreme Court in legal battle with Epic Games
Apple turns to Supreme Court in legal battle with Epic Games /

Remember when Apple threw Fortnite from the App Store after Epic Games tried to offer its own payment system for in-game purchases to avoid giving Apple a 30% cut of every transaction?

As far as legal disputes involving giants of the video games industry are concerned that case really took the backseat ever since the whole Microsoft vs. Sony and the FTC thing began, but it’s been quietly bubbling in the background ever since 2020 when it all started. The initial ruling made by a Californian court in 2021 rejected nine of Epic Games’ ten claims against Apple, but strongly agreed with the Fortnite maker’s argument that developers should be allowed to offer alternative payment methods in their games and apps even on Apple’s platform.

This opened the floodgates for companies like Niantic to follow Epic in circumventing the App Store.

That wasn’t satisfactory for any of the two parties, who appealed this decision two times – the ruling was upheld in both cases, though.

Apple is now climbing the ladder and turned to the Supreme Court of the United States to throw the ruling overboard, as revealed by a new court filing (via gamesindustry.biz). Essentially, Apple argues that the Californian court was wrong to issue a nationwide injunction, seeking to limit the ruling’s effect to the state in which it was made.

Naturally, Apple would like to maintain its 30% cut from all in-game purchases made on its platform, so it’s understandable they’d seek a repeal of the ruling. Epic Games has a far bigger bone to pick with the phone maker aside from that single point and could appeal to the Supreme Court as well, though as yet there is no indication that it’ll do so.

One thing’s for sure: Game-related court battles are here to stay for a while longer.


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Marco Wutz
MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg