Fortnite creators Epic Games have officially filed an appeal following Friday’s ruling by District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who dismissed the game developer’s claims that Apple is a monopolist under federal and state antitrust laws as part of the legal battle between Apple and Epic, which started after the Fortnite app was banned from the App Store last year.
On Friday, the US courts 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 battle, ruling that Epic breached the App Store developer terms and must pay Apple damages for the period it violated the App Store payment policy.
Apple and Google pulled Fortnite from their respective app stores last year after Epic Games pushed an update to the Fortnite app that implemented a new “direct payment” option in an effort to evade the commission the App Store and Google Play store take from in-app purchases.
As reported by The Verge, Epic’s lawyers submitted an official appeal on Sunday. The document reads “Notice is hereby given that Epic Games, Inc…. appeals to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from the final Judgment entered on September 10, 2021.”
The developer is now likely wanting the court to reexamine Apple’s alleged antitrust actions and the damages the court ruled must be paid to Apple in an amount equal to 30% of the $12,167,719 in revenue the developer collected from users from the Fortnite app on iOS through Epic’s direct payment option between August and October 2020, plus 30% of any such revenue Epic Games collected from November 1, 2020 through the date of judgment.