Apple turns to Supreme Court in legal battle with Epic Games
Remember when Apple threw Fortnite from the App Store after Epic Games tried to offer its own payment system for in-game purchases to avoid giving Apple a 30% cut of every transaction?
As far as legal disputes involving giants of the video games industry are concerned that case really took the backseat ever since the whole Microsoft vs. Sony and the FTC thing began, but it’s been quietly bubbling in the background ever since 2020 when it all started. The initial ruling made by a Californian court in 2021 rejected nine of Epic Games’ ten claims against Apple, but strongly agreed with the Fortnite maker’s argument that developers should be allowed to offer alternative payment methods in their games and apps even on Apple’s platform.
This opened the floodgates for companies like Niantic to follow Epic in circumventing the App Store.
That wasn’t satisfactory for any of the two parties, who appealed this decision two times – the ruling was upheld in both cases, though.
Apple is now climbing the ladder and turned to the Supreme Court of the United States to throw the ruling overboard, as revealed by a new court filing (via gamesindustry.biz). Essentially, Apple argues that the Californian court was wrong to issue a nationwide injunction, seeking to limit the ruling’s effect to the state in which it was made.
Naturally, Apple would like to maintain its 30% cut from all in-game purchases made on its platform, so it’s understandable they’d seek a repeal of the ruling. Epic Games has a far bigger bone to pick with the phone maker aside from that single point and could appeal to the Supreme Court as well, though as yet there is no indication that it’ll do so.
One thing’s for sure: Game-related court battles are here to stay for a while longer.
