Epic Games lawsuit against Apple: Tim Sweeney loses most of his bet but appeals the verdict – Gamekult

Out of a total of ten charges, Apple has only been convicted on one subject, but it is far from trivial. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has in fact admitted that Apple is guilty of “anti-competitive behavior“by preventing game developers from redirecting consumers to their own websites and means of payment or simply from promoting these alternative means of payment. Clearly, the judge’s decision implies that Apple will have to, as of December 9, allow all game developers to promote links allowing players to make purchases in games without going through the App Store and therefore without Apple receiving its 30% commission.

On paper, it is therefore a decision that already counts a lot, but this partial victory is far from satisfying Tim Sweeney who admits having lost this battle and has already announced his intention to appeal the judgment. Of course, Apple will have to relax its terms on payment solutions, but not in the way Epic Games wants. What the editor of Fortnite is struggling is the possibility that these alternative payment methods can be accessed directly within iOS applications, not just through an external link, a method that is arguably not practical enough to really worry Apple.

Fortnite: no return in sight on iOS

It’s here vision that Tim Sweeney had wanted to impose by adding (illegally) a direct payment option to buy V-Bucks in Fortnite on iOS last August. Players who opted for this direct payment instead of the App Store payment could buy their virtual currency 10% cheaper while Apple received no commission. It was this bravado which had caused the withdrawal of Fortnite on iOS by Apple, which however agrees to reinstate the battle royale from the moment Epic Games complies with the regulations. However, there is still no question for Epic Games to give up.

“Today’s decision is not a victory for developers or for consumers. Epic is fighting for fair competition between in-app payment methods and app stores for a billion consumers. Fortnite will return to the iOS App Store when Epic can offer an in-app payment that competes fairly with Apple’s and passes the savings on to consumers.“, reacted Tim Sweeney on Twitter before thanking the court for having been able to quickly manage such a complex case.