Apple VS Fortnite. Epic Games Faces Countersuit.
The war between tech company Apple Inc. and Epic Games is becoming complicated day by day. The trouble between Apple and Fortnite began on August 13th when the developers of the game started using their own payment system, basically there's a rule on the App Store that if you want to do a payment in any application you have to go through a payment service from App Store, a publisher cannot start their own in-app payment system, bypassing Apple’s standard 30 per cent fees. In no time Apple removed Epic Games' Fortnite from the App Store and in response Epic Games sued Apple alleging that Apple’s App Store “monopolistic” practises violate antitrust rules. Later, Apple suspended Epic Games’ from accessing the App Store’s development tools.
Apple, on Tuesday filed a counter lawsuit against Epic Games (developer of Fortnite) alleging that the game maker violated its contract with Apple and seeking an unspecified amount in damages.
“Although Epic portrays itself as a modern corporate Robin Hood, in reality it is a multi-billion dollar enterprise that simply wants to pay nothing for the tremendous value it derives from the App Store,” Apple said in a filing with the District Court for the Northern District of California. “Epic’s lawsuit is nothing more than a basic disagreement over money.” Apple called Epic Games’ motive “wilful, brazen, and unlawful.”
"Epic wants free access to the Apple-provided tools that uses and — worse yet — it wishes to then charge others for access to Apple’s intellectual property and technologies." The Cupertino, California-based Apple argues. The lawsuit clearly says that the massive game company already earned over $600 million through the App Store.
Apple also said that Epic Games' real motive is to get "special treatment"from Apple’s App Store rules. The company also said that the Fortnite developer got access to tools, marketing opportunities, software and most importantly access to Apple customer through the App Store.
Apple Inc. has said it would only allow Fortnite back into App Store if Epic removed the direct payment system. But Epic Games is refusing, saying "complying with Apple’s request would be to collude with Apple to maintain their monopoly over in-app payment system on iOS."
Epic Games' Chief Executive Officer Tim Sweeney tweeted, "Apple’s statement is misleading. You can read my email in Apple’s filing, which is publicly available. I specifically said in Epic’s request to the Apple execs, “We hope that Apple will also make these options equally available to all iOS developers…”
Apple also defended themselves by saying that they have given million of developers an opportunity/platform to distribute their apps freely, and yes it’s true.
But when will the legal battle between both the giant company come to an end, fans and players are waiting for the game to come back to the App Store, the players have also started a trend on social media #bringbackfortnite , but the main question is who's wrong is this legal war? Violating any agreement is illegal, but Fortnite wants to dominate Apple in their in-app payment monopoly rule. Clearly Epic Games is taking a stand for all the developers on the App Store. Tim Sweeney also tweeted, As I said in my letter to Apple about competitive payments and competitive stores, “We hope that Apple will also make these options equally available to all iOS developers.”
Hope both the companies come to an agreement, and iOS users get their favourite game Fortnite to play.
By Yash Lalwani
