[ad_1]
Apple has blacklisted Fortnite from the App Store until appeals in its legal battle with game maker Epic are over, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said on Wednesday – a process that could take years.
On Twitter on Wednesday, Sweeney called out Apple’s decision and said his company would continue to fight.
“This is another extraordinary anti-competitive move from Apple, demonstrating its power to reshape markets and pick winners and losers,” Sweeney said.
The two companies have been in a legal dispute since August last year, when the game maker tried to bypass Apple’s 30% charge on certain in-app purchases on the App Store by launching its own payment system. integrated. Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, has accused Apple of running its App Store like a monopoly, wielding too much power over which apps are allowed and how they are run.
A U.S. judge’s ruling in September struck down a critical part of Apple’s App Store rules that prohibit developers from telling users other places they can go to pay the developer directly, rather than use Apple’s payment mechanisms.
While the decision was seen as a partial victory for Epic, the judge did not grant Epic some of its other wishes, such as forcing Apple to open the iPhone to third-party app stores.
The judge ruled that Epic had not shown that Apple was an illegal monopoly, but showed that the smartphone giant was engaging in “anti-competitive behavior” under California laws.
Epic made it clear at the time that it did not view the decision as a victory and that it planned to appeal.
Apple has confirmed the authenticity of the letter Sweeney shared, but declined to comment further. Apple has yet to say whether it will seek a stay of the injunction pending the appeal process.
“Epic committed an intentional breach of contract and breach of trust by hiding Apple’s code and making false statements and omissions,” the iPhone maker told Epic Games, according to the letter shared by Sweeney.
Developers have long criticized Apple’s 15-30% commissions on many App Store purchases, which some developers see as an opaque and unpredictable app verification process.
[ad_2]
Source link