Epic is asking a California court to protect it from what the company describes as retaliation from Apple over the escalating conflict between the two
Epic is asking a California court to protect it from what the company describes as retaliation from Apple over the escalating conflict between the two massive tech companies. It’s the latest development in a dispute that rapidly unfolded late last week and ultimately saw Epic Games filing a lawsuit against both Apple and Google for allegedyl unfair and anti-competitive actions relating to each platform holders’ handling of third-party storefronts and payment options. It’s a lot to catch up on, so here’s a quick summary: This all started August 13 when Epic Games updated Fortnite to include a payment method that bypassed the usual platform fees taken out of in-app purchases. (More on that here.) Apple fired back that afternoon by pulling Fornite from the App Store, claiming that payment scheme and update violated its App Store Guidelines. (And, more on that here.) Soon after, Epic broadcast an in-game short to Fortnite parodying an Apple commercial and displaying the message “Epic Games has defied the App Store Monopoly. In retaliation, Apple is blocking Fortnite from a billion devices. Join the fight to stop 2020 from becoming 1984” to players. Around that same time, Epic filed a lawsuit against Apple arguing its App Store policies were unlawful and anti-competitive. (More on that here.) Much later into the day, Google also opted to remove Fortnite from Android’s Google Play store. That action was similarly followed up with a lawsuit, though the examples at the core of Epic’s issue with Google differ slightly due to the platform’s more open nature. (More here.) That brings us to today where Epic Games has revealed that Apple’s action against it extends much further than simply delisting Fortnite. As stated in this recent filing, Apple has decided to revoke Epic Games’ entire developer account, preventing Epic both from having apps on the App Store and making it impossible for the company to keep iOS and MacOS support up to date in Unreal Engine.
