Apple just removed Fortnite from the App Store until appeals are completed in its legal battle with the game’s manufacturer, Epic Games. According to what Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said Wednesday, the process could take years, which is why Fortnite could be absent from the App Store for a very long time.
Apple removes Fortnite from the App Store
As expected after such a move, the response from the CEO of Epic Games was not long in coming: “this is yet another anti-competitive move by Apple – writes Sweeney su Twitter – it only demonstrates their unilateral power to shape the market by choosing them who are the losers and winners “. Strong words, but not surprising given the increasingly tense relations between the two companies.
The two companies have been involved in a legal dispute since August last year, when Epic Games tried to get around Apple’s 30% fee on some in-app purchases on the App Store, by entering a link to your payment system in Please provide. Epic then accused Apple of running its online store as a monopoly, exerting too much power over which apps to allow and how they are used.
The September ruling has for now canceled a key part of Apple’s App Store rules. Obviously we are talking about the clauses that prohibit developers from communicating other platforms to users where they can pay the developer directly, rather than using Apple’s payment mechanisms.
That said, the judge also ruled that Apple is not operating in an illegal monopoly regime, as Epic claimed, and therefore the Fortnite company appealed. It follows that this war between giants is far from over and will probably continue for many years to come.