OnEpic Games vs. Apple lawsuitThe United States District Court for the Northern District of California ruled on April 4 local time thatthinkApple deliberately violated the court's injunction issued in 2021 and approved Epic Games' request for an injunction recently filed.
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers pointed out in her ruling that Apple's behavior involved violations of market competition and interference in market pricing. Therefore, she required Apple to stop restricting other payment methods within the App and affecting the rights of users to consume through third-party payment methods.
The court's ruling was upheld by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on April 2023, 4, and the Supreme Court rejected Apple's appeal on January 24, 2024, making the ruling official. Therefore, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers believes that despite being aware of the court's final ruling, Apple continued its anti-competitive practices in order to maintain its revenue stream. She even believes that Apple may have willfully ignored the injunction, potentially constituting contempt of court. The case is expected to be transferred to the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California for an investigation into possible contempt of court.
In the new ruling, the court prohibits Apple from charging fees or handling fees for paid purchases outside the app, and prohibits developers from requiring them to report, monitor, track or audit paid purchases or activities outside the app, or even requiring developers not to communicate with users outside the app, or restrict external links to use specific template language, including restrictions on button style, link location and design, and restrictions on the use of dynamic links (such as links that direct users directly to specific product pages).
The injunction took effect immediately upon the District Court's announcement, and no motion to stay the order will be entertained. Following the ruling, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney responded on X, stating that Fortnite will return to the US App Store next week.
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
