Apple yesterday September 8th filed a counter lawsuit against Epic Games, Fortnite developer requesting the company for lost App Store fees and other damages as well as seeking an order to stop the company from operating its own in-app payment system.
The battle between both company had been on for a while now with Epic Games launching its own in-app system in order to go against Apple’s own payment system which takes about 30% commission of payment through this system.
Epic Games did so which in turn is against Apple Store’s regulations and so the game Fortnite was pulled off the platform. Apple was accused by the game developer of being monopolistic in their practices.
Apple did block the game developer’s ability to distribute updates or new apps through the App Store prompting the latter to seek a legal immunity against the tech giant stating a ban from the Apple’s Development ecosystem could cause an irreparable damage to the company.
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Apple was sued by Epic for violating the antitrust laws but the court allowed Apple to block Epic from distributing new titles as the case plays out even though the versions of Fortnite game still work as well as the Epic’s own payment system.
Meanwhile Apple had stated that it’s willing to allow Fortnite back to the App Store only if it remove it’s direct payment feature in order to comply with its developer agreement but Epic has refused stating that Apple’s request would be “to collude with Apple to maintain their monopoly over in-app payments on iOS.”
So Apple is seeking monetary damages for Epic’s payment system as well as seeking “restitution and disgorgement of all earnings, profits, compensation, benefits, and other ill-gotten gains obtained by Epic as a result of its conduct.”
But the amount which the tech giant is requesting isn’t stated as the company seek damages for harm to its reputation from frustrated Fortnite players and public relations campaign which Epic has launched against the tech giant via it’s 1984 Apple ads parody.
Apple also sought a court order that would force Epic to disable its own payment system in “Fortnite” on Apple devices
