That will happen at the earliest when the ongoing legal dispute with the developer company Epic Games has been concluded, said the iPhone group. It could be years before then.
Apple does not want the popular online game “Fortnite” to return to its app store until the legal dispute with the developer Epic Games is completely over. The iPhone company declined a request to resume, according to a letter published by Epic boss Tim Sweeney. Apple referred, among other things, to the previous “duplicitous” behavior of Epic.
In the dispute between Apple and Epic, which has been going on for over a year, the first judgment was given ten days ago. A judge in California ruled, among other things, that Apple was entitled to ban Epic and “Fortnite” from the App Store.
Epic wanted to enforce the right to operate its own app store on the iPhone and to be able to sell digital content to “Fortnite” players past Apple. After Apple insisted on its rules, Epic resorted to a trick. The game company secretly built software code into the app, thanks to which users could buy “Fortnite” items directly from Epic without commissions to Apple. After the feature was activated, Apple threw “Fortnite” from the App Store. Epic complained against it.
In her judgment, the judge touched neither the Apple commission of 15 to 30 percent for sales of digital goods, nor that the in-house app store is the only platform for downloading apps on the iPhone. However, she decided that Apple should no longer prohibit developers from advising users of options for cheaper purchases outside of the app store. Epic appealed the verdict.
At the same time, Sweeney promised in an email to Apple that Epic would adhere to the rules that apply to all developers in the future. “Apple lied,” he rumbled after the rejection of the request on Twitter in view of earlier statements by the iPhone company that Epic would be welcomed again if the conditions were met.
In the letter to Epic, however, the Apple lawyers also pointed out that Sweeney had claimed after the judgment that they would not give up their own purchasing system in order to get back to the App Store. Apple will only consider further return requests when the judge’s judgment is final and can no longer be appealed. This process could take five years, criticized Sweeney. There was initially no further comment from Apple.