Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has stated that the company's popular battle royale game Fortnite is set to remain indefinitely banned from Apple’s App Store, as he publicly revealed emails sent to him by Apple.
Earlier this week Apple informed Epic Games that it "will not consider any further requests for reinstatement until the district court’s judgment becomes final and nonappealable." On his Twitter, Sweeney publicly revealed the letter sent by Apple, confirming to his followers that his company intends to "fight on."
Within the letter, Apple's legal team informs Sweeney that it presently has no plans to reinstate Fortnite to its App Store, stating: "Following that decision, Mr. Sweeney has publicly said that Epic '[w]ouldn’t trade [an alternative payment system] away to get Fortnite back on iOS.' In light of this and other statements since the court’s decision, coupled with Epic’s duplicitous conduct in the past, Apple has exercised its discretion not to reinstate Epic’s developer program account at this time."
Sweeney responded to this statement in his tweets, expressing his discontent over the situation. "Apple lied. Apple spent a year telling the world, the court, and the press they’d 'welcome Epic’s return to the App Store if they agree to play by the same rules as everyone else.' Epic agreed, and now Apple has reneged in another abuse of its monopoly power over a billion users."
This news comes after Epic sued Apple in August 2020, as a result of Apple removing Fortnite from its App Store due to the company adding its own payment system within the game. Apple deemed this a violation of its terms and conditions that mandate all companies use the in-app payment system, which allows Apple to claim 30% of all purchases.
The court case came to a head earlier this month as the judge issued an injunction that Apple must allow other forms of in-app purchases that may bypass its App Store transaction fee. However, she also ruled that companies are not authorized to insert independent payment systems within apps, and deemed Epic had breached its contract for doing so, ordering it to pay $6 million to Apple as a result.
The judge ruled that Apple’s decision to remove Fortnite from its App Store was valid, confirming that the court would not outright require Apple to reinstate Fortnite back on its Store, and opted to leave the decision up to Apple. Apple has since referred to the ruling as a "resounding victory for the App Store," while Epic has filed an appeal.
Source: Twitter