With ‘Fortnite’ Still Blocked From App Store, Judge Demands Apple Prove What “Legal Authority” They Have To “Ignore” Court Orders
As Apple continues to play coy with Fortnite‘s return to the iOS App Store, a US District Judge has ordered the tech giant to either immediately restore Epic Games’ battle royale to their mobile platforms or explain what “legal authority” they have to continue ignoring the court’s rulings.
For those in need of a quick recap, while Fortnite was once freely available on the Apple App Store, it was removed in 2020 after Epic Games tried to sell the game’s premium V-Bucks currency directly to players, thus cutting Apple and their 30% revenue cut out of the deal.
Apple claimed these ‘direct V-Bucks sale’ violated their Terms of Service, while Epic Games argued in turn that Apple had an unfair monopoly over their own store and should allow the existence of competing “stores”.
In the resulting legal battle, Apple won on nine counts, but lost on their most crucial judgements, with Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruling on April 30th that Apple had to allow developers to link to other stores, or inform players of cheaper alternatives to the App Store, drop their 27% commission on purchases via web links, and pay Epic Games’ legal fees.
Ultimately, Apple agreed to change their policy globally, and Epic Games took the win, with the developer proceeding to submit the game for reapproval.
Speaking to The Game Business after the judgement, Sweeney highlighted, “We were one of Apple’s best partners for more than a decade, from the point we released Infinity Blade for iOS and did amazing Unreal Engine support, right up until we started fighting them in 2020. A good decade of awesome partnership.”
“We hope with now the law being classified, and Apple’s legal obligations under these consumer protection laws being clear, and now with Apple being forced by the court to adhere to them, that hopefully we can put our dispute to rest, ” he added.
“I’ve been fighting Apple for a long time,” he recalled. “But I’m an iPhone customer. This is an awesome device. I love having it. I don’t love the policies that Apple has made with respect to stores, but there’s a lot of respect of Epic towards Apple’s quality of product and focus. I hold out hope that there’s a way for Apple to get back on the right side of history here. I think this is a great time for Apple to consider doing that.”
On May 9th, Epic Games re-submitted Fortnite to the App Store – yet, ten days out, it still has not cleared Apple’s review processes.
Notably, this is far from a usual occurrence, as per Apple’s own App Review page, “on average, 90% of submissions are reviewed in less than 24 hour.”
To be fair, the initial delay was far from malicious, as Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney himself explained, “We need to release a weekly Fortnite update with new content this Friday, and all platforms must update simultaneously. So we have pulled the previous Fortnite version submitted to Apple App Review last Friday, and we have submitted a new version for review.”
Asked by a fan as to how the company did “not plan for this”, Sweeney clarified, “Our release planning relies on platforms supporting app developers like us releasing apps. There is no way a rapidly evolving multi-platform game like Fortnite can operate if platforms use their power or processes to obstruct.”
The mood only got worse over the next 24 hours. In a statement to IGN, Epic Games claimed “Apple has blocked our Fortnite submission so we cannot release to the U.S. App Store or to the Epic Games Store for iOS in the European Union. Now, sadly, Fortnite on iOS will be offline worldwide until Apple unblocks it.”
Sweeney took the matter back to Apple’s door-step, or as close as he could get. In reply to a tweet by Apple CEO Tim Cook over accessibility features on Apple devices, Sweeney asked “Hi Tim. How about if you let our mutual customers access Fortnite? Just a thought.”
Fast forward to May 16th, and in light of Fortnite still being barred from the App Store, Epic Games filed a Motion to Enforce Injunction with the Oakland, CA District Court asking that they enter an Order “finding that Apple violated the Injunction by refusing to consider Epic’s Fortnite submission; and (2) requiring Apple to accept any compliant version of Fortnite onto the U.S. storefront of the App Store.”
Three days later, Judge Rogers took note of Epic Games’ request and ordered Apple to “show cause as to why the motion should not be granted.”
“Briefing shall occur on the schedule listed below and shall include the legal authority upon which Apple contends that it can ignore this Court’s order”.
“Obviously, Apple is fully capable of resolving this issue without further briefing or a hearing,” said Judge Rogers. “However, if the parties do not file a joint notice that this issue is resolved, and this Court’s intervention is required, the Apple official who is personally responsible for ensuring compliance shall personally appear”.
As of writing, Apple has yet to respond to Judge Rogers’ notice.
However, a hearing in the matter is currently scheduled for May 21st.
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