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(Reuters) – A federal judge in California on Tuesday dismissed part of Apple Inc. AAPL.O counterclaims against Epic Games, Bloomberg News reported, narrowing the scope of a dispute that saw the online game maker’s “Fortnite” game removed from the iPhone maker’s app store.
Apple and Epic have been in a legal battle since August, when the popular game maker launched its own integrated payment system to bypass what it called Apple’s monopoly practices.
In October, Epic filed a motion ahead of Tuesday’s hearing, asking for the dismissal of Apple’s counterclaims for intentional interference with potential economic benefit and conversion, while Apple asked for the loss of costs from the App Store and other pecuniary damages.
Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday that U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers had dismissed the allegations and limited Apple’s claims to its breach of contract counterclaims against Epic.
A judge in October ruled that Apple could ban Epic’s “Fortnite” game from its App Store but should not interfere with the business of Epic’s development tools, including “Unreal Engine” software, which is used by hundreds of other video games.
“This is a high stakes breach of contract and antitrust case and that’s it in my opinion,” Justice Gonzalez Rogers told lawyers, according to Bloomberg News.
“You can’t just independently say it’s illegal,” Bloomberg said, citing bloom.bg/3pgZDlx, the judge at Apple attorney, referring to Epic’s behavior. “You actually have to have facts,” the judge said, adding that the rest of the breach of contract case was moving forward.
Apple and Epic did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment. The iPhone maker told Bloomberg it disagreed with the judge’s ruling on Tuesday, adding that it was clear Epic had severed its contract with the company.
(This story corrects the headline, paragraph 1 to add Bloomberg News as a source; removes reference to an unrelated written order of Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in paragraph 4)
Reporting by Bhargav Acharya in Bengaluru and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco
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