It’s now up to Apple to decide if Fortnite ever returns to the App Store
District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has today ruled that Apple must allow developers to offer their users alternate payment methods for in-app purchases as part of the high-profile Epic versus Apple legal case, ruling that Epic breached the App Store developer terms and must pay Apple damages for the period it violated the App Store payment policy.
While there is no winner in the case, arguably Apple has come out of the ruling most unharmed, having been issued with a permanent injunction, which restrains Apple from prohibiting developers from accepting payments from anything other than Apple’s in-app purchase system, but having Epic’s claims of the iPhone maker being a monopolist under either federal or state antitrust laws dismissed, now owing Apple hefty damages for bypassing the App Store policy last year.
The permanent injunction published today rules that Apple’s decision to terminate Epic’s developer account was aboveboard and that Apple was within its rights to close the account after Epic made an update to the Fortnite app last year to add a new “direct payment” option in an effort to evade the commission the App Store takes from in-app purchases.
Because of this, the courts will not force Apple to give back Epic Games their Apple Developer privileges, leaving it completely up to the Cupertino company to decide if Fortnite returns to the App Store.
Apple’s termination of the DPLA and the related agreements between Epic Games and Apple was valid, lawful, and enforceable, and Apple has the contractual right to terminate its DPLA with any or all of Epic Games’ wholly owned subsidiaries, affiliates, and/or otherentities under Epic Games’ control at any time and at Apple’s sole discretion.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said in a Tweet on Friday that “Fortnite will return to the iOS App Store when and where Epic can offer in-app payment in fair competition with Apple in-app payment, passing along the savings to consumers.” but there is no indication at this time that Apple will actually allow Epic to make a return onto the App Store anytime soon.
It is understood that Epic Games now plans to appeal parts of the ruling.