Apple and Epic Games have been engaged in a long drawn lawsuit. The lawsuit came into being when Fortnite was removed from the App Store.
The dispute arose after Epic Games bypassed the payment gateway within the App Store itself in order to skip on the excess commission that Apple was charging.
The judge has finally made a ruling, and Apple probably does not like the result
iOS Developers Allowed to Direct App Users to Outside Payment Options
The judge in Epic v. Apple has sided with Epic with an injunction that states Apple has:
"permanently restrained and enjoined from prohibiting developers from (i) including in their apps and their metadata buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms, in addition to In-App Purchasing and (ii) communicating with customers through points of contact obtained voluntarily from customers through account registration within the app."
Apple's actions of forcing developers to use their payment system in order to have their apps listed on iOS have been deemed anticompetitive, a decision that will cost Apple 30% of every in-app purchase for a developer who chooses not to use their payment processing system.
While the court ruled in favor of Epic, Apple did win a counter-suit that Epic lost, costing them 30% of the $12,167,719 in revenue Epic collected from Fortnite on iOS using Direct Payment between August and October 2020.
It is estimated Epic will have to pay Apple $3.6 million.
Will Fortnite Return to iOS
This ruling would make it seem like a no-brainer that Apple will return to iOS, but Apple will probably fight the ruling in order to maintain the revenue stream they currently have by forcing developers to use their systems.
More on this story to come as it evolves.
Read more: When does Fortnite Season 8 go live?
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