US District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers recently ruled that Apple had violated her 2021 ruling of a lawsuit filed against the fruit company by Epic Games. “For the reasons set forth herein, the Court finds Apple in willful violation of this Court’s 2021 Injunction which issued to restrain and prohibit Apple’s anticompetitive conduct and anticompetitive pricing. Apple’s continued attempts to interfere with competition will not be tolerated.”
Basically, despite Rogers’ ruling back then, Apple has continued to take a 27% cut for purchases made outside the App Store. Adding insult to injury, it showed iOS users screen warnings that making a payment outside the Apply Pay ecosystem may not be secure, an action that the judge barred the company from doing.
This is, by the way, different for iOS Small Business Program members, in which the fruit company takes a smaller 12% cut from their sales. “Apple sought to maintain a revenue stream worth billions in direct defiance of this court’s injunction”.
Apple clearly isn’t happy and has said that it will be pursuing an appeal but until then, it will comply with the court’s orders.
We will return Fortnite to the US iOS App Store next week.
Epic puts forth a peace proposal: If Apple extends the court's friction-free, Apple-tax-free framework worldwide, we'll return Fortnite to the App Store worldwide and drop current and future litigation on the topic. https://t.co/bIRTePm0Tv
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) April 30, 2025
On a slightly cheerier note, Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, announced that Fortnite will be returning to iOS in the US next week. In light of the judge’s ruling against Apple, he also promised that his company’s game will return to the App store globally, provided that Apple continues to comply and apply a commission-free, tax-free payment framework.
(Source: Engadget [1] [2], NYT, Court Ruling PDF)
