We have yet to hear the latest from Epic’s campaign against Apple over the iPhone maker’s App Store fees.
Epic Games filed a formal petition with the Supreme Court on Wednesday, moving matters before the nation’s highest court to reconsider whether Apple’s software business violates federal antitrust laws.
We’ll find out in the coming months whether the Supreme Court picks up this case, which would reopen a protracted legal battle between the two companies that has made its way through the courts for five years now. Apple will likely file a petition soon as well, taking up an earlier ruling that was partially sympathetic to Epic’s complaints.
Epic Games, which makes Fortnite and operates its own software marketplace, the Epic Games Store, initially sued Apple in 2020. That lawsuit came after Apple booted Fortnite from iOS — a controversy that Epic itself sparked by Intentionally violating App Store rules by giving players a way to pay directly for Fortnite in-game currency.
This workaround successfully circumvented Apple’s controversial fees, violating the tech giant’s guidelines in the process and launching Epic’s aggressive campaign to rally developers against Apple’s outdated software practices.
Earlier this year, Apple largely won an appeals court battle with Epic arising from the same complaints about the company’s App Store policies. In an opinion issued in April, the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld most of an earlier decision by a federal judge in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. This ruling dismissed most of Epic’s argument that Apple is violating federal antitrust laws by excluding markets for alternative software on iOS.
Although the courts were mostly on Apple’s side, a federal judge ruled that Apple violated California’s unfair competition law by preventing developers from telling consumers about alternative payment options — a small part of the win for Epic. The Court of Appeal confirmed this decision earlier this year.
With the ongoing legal battle now headed toward the Supreme Court, Epic has asked to allow developers to direct iPhone users toward payment options outside of Apple’s walled garden. That request was denied by Justice Elena Kagan in August, meaning Apple’s existing rules will remain in place for the time being unless the Supreme Court decides not to consider them after all.