Epic Games to appeal ruling in lawsuit against Apple

Following a mixed decision, Epic has appealed against the Apple App Store ruling

After a mixed decision by the federal judge in the ongoing Epic vs Apple trial, the Fortnite maker has vowed to continue the battle. The judge ruled in favour of Apple in nine out of the ten counts.

The ruling did not find that Apple had a monopoly and did not agree with Epic that the iPhone maker had to support alternative payment systems on the App store.

The judge agreed that Apple failed to justify its thirty percent tax on the app store from in-app purchases but did not stop it from charging that fee. At most, the only concession the judge agreed to was allowing third-party developers to advertise their own payments systems to users outside of the app.

As per the ruling, Apple can also continue to block Epic Games and by extension, Fortnite for reappearing on the app store. Apple has called the ruling a win even as Epic Games gears up to challenge it in court once again.

The legal battle which has been fought since May last year began when Apple barred Epic Games and the popular battle royale Fortnite from its App Store citing violations of it terms and conditions.

Epic had updated the Fortnite app on iOS and Android to include payments systems in-game that would bypass the payment mechanisms Apple and Google had in place. Both companies took down Fortnite from their stores and Epic sued them in court.

Before the ruling, Apple had settled with third-party developers allowing them to link customers to payment systems outside of the app store and agreed to a $100 million fund for small app developers.