How did Epic Games finally win its long App Store battle with Apple?
Fortnite has returned to the U.S. App Store after a five-year absence, following a prolonged legal dispute between Epic Games and Apple.
The game’s availability on the App Store was restored on Tuesday, and it is also accessible on the Epic Games Store and AltStore in the EU, according to a post by Epic on X. Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store in 2020 after Epic introduced an in-game purchase option using its virtual currency, offering a 20% discount, which contravened Apple’s policies.
Epic subsequently sued Apple, and a judge ruled in Epic’s favor, determining that Apple was in “willful violation” of rules prohibiting anticompetitive pricing. Last month, the judge ordered Apple to permit developers to process payments outside the App Store without incurring fees.
Following this ruling, Epic resubmitted Fortnite to the App Store but faced a delay in approval, accusing Apple of blocking the game’s release in the U.S. and EU. A U.S. District Judge, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, intervened earlier this week, instructing Apple to either approve Epic’s submission or provide a legal justification for rejecting it.
The newly available version of Fortnite on the App Store offers a 20% cashback for in-game purchases made directly through Epic, rather than using Apple’s in-app purchase system.