Apple bans Fortnite from App Store until appeals in Epic Games lawsuit are finished

Epic Games’ popular video game Fortnite could remain banned from the App Store indefinitely — despite the Cary-based company’s willingness to play by the App Store’s rules, Epic’s co-founder and CEO Tim Sweeney said on Wednesday.

Fortnite has been kicked off the App Store ever since the company inserted its own payment system within the game, violating Apple’s rules that mandate developers use its in-app payment system and pay a 30% fee on all purchases.

That led to Epic’s high-profile antitrust case against Apple, which a judge ruled on earlier this month.

While Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Apple no longer can block developers from communicating alternative payment options to customers outside of the App Store, her ruling stopped short of letting developers insert their own payment systems within apps.

She even determined that Epic had breached its contract with Apple when it placed an alternative payment system within Fortnite in August 2020, leading to Epic paying Apple $6 million.

Epic has appealed Gonzalez Rogers’ ruling.

In a tweet on Wednesday, Sweeney published an email he sent to Apple saying that, while it is appealing the court’s decision, it has paid Apple its owed $6 million and promised to adhere to Apple’s rules on any of the Apple platforms it operates on.

Sweeney added that Apple had long told them that Fortnite could return to the App Store if Epic Games followed Apple’s rules.

But now, Sweeney said, Apple is retaining its ban on Fortnite until all appeals in the lawsuit have been exhausted — a process that Sweeney said could take up to five years.

“Apple lied,” Sweeney tweeted. “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.”

Apple has not yet responded to a request for comment on the matter.

In a letter that Sweeney shared on Twitter, Apple’s lawyers noted that Gonzalez Rogers’ ruling said Apple had “contractual rights” to terminate Epic’s developer accounts with Apple.

“Apple has exercised its discretion not to reinstate Epic’s developer program account at this time,” the email from Apple’s lawyer reads. “Furthermore, Apple will not consider any further requests for reinstatement until the district court’s judgment becomes final and non-appealable.”

This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate.