Apple won't let Fortnite back on the App Store till court appeals end

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney took to twitter to share a correspondence with Apple stating that the iPhone maker will not reinstate Epic's developer account till all court appeals were finished.

Apple and Epic have just gone through a long legal trial over Apple's stubbornness to allow alternative payment solutions for apps other than the App Store. The trial finally came to close earlier this month with the federal judge ruling in favour of Apple for nine of the ten counts it was charged with.

Epic not happy with decision has vowed to fight the ruling in court again but as per a tweet by Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, they were willing to play along by Apple's rules in the interim.

Just last week, Epic agreed with Apple that we would play by the same rules as everyone else. pic.twitter.com/WOxsbnAFXE

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) September 22, 2021

Apple put its foot down and refused to grant Epic access to its Apple Developer account till all the trial proceedings were over and done with. The tech giant called Epic's past actions "duplicitous" and said that it would not consider any requests to do so until the district court's judgement becomes "final and non-appealable."

Late last night, Apple informed Epic that Fortnite will be blacklisted from the Apple ecosystem until the exhaustion of all court appeals, which could be as long as a 5-year process. pic.twitter.com/QCD7wogJef

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) September 22, 2021

Sweeney called this, "a loss for fair competition and consumer choice," and said that the loss of an, "an iOS metaverse competitor alongside Roblox and PUBG Mobile has significant implications for the evolution of the new medium of our era."