Apple Must Resolve ‘Fortnite’ Return or Answer for It to Judge
And this showdown, promising court antics, is set for May 27. The charge: continued banishment of Fortnite. Unless the two parties bury the hatchet, a judge shall require answers concerning the blockbuster game’s ban in the App Store.
After another five years of litigation, the CEO of Epic seemingly surrendered and promised to see the game restored to the App Store. It has been three weeks since the announcement, but the reunion has not yet been fulfilled. Meanwhile, Apple, itself appealing against a recent decision, seems to be suspending the comeback of the game.
The oakland-based Judge Gonzalez-Rogers ended Monday with a fierce rebuke toward Apple, which she said must be able to solve a certain unspecified problem by themselves. Her order almost carried the connotation of doubting Apple’s ability to solve such an issue. However, with wonderful irony, she added that “Should intervention become necessary,” an Apple representative will be called to court- the clear implication being, fix it yourselves, or face the music.
Between 2020 and 2024, a war was waged between Apple and the antitrust authorities, with the US Supreme Court at the very steps of the standoff, owing to App Store fees and policies. And the casualty? Fortnite was banned from the Digital Kingdom of Apple, losing access to over a billion iPhone and iPad players.
Epic declined to comment and a spokesperson for Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Judge Gonzalez Rogers did not go so far as to order the immediate resurrection of the app; however, she noted that the writing was on the wall. Apple has until Wednesday to present for her a truly knowledgeable executive. Now the fate of this app rests with such heavyweights of the company as Phil Schiller, who runs the App Store empire, Carson Oliver, who manages the Legions of business, and Trystan Kosmynka, who heads the app review tribunal. Which one of these Apple titans will step up to the plate?
Apple’s walled garden just got a bit thornier on April 30th when Judge Gonzalez Rogers stung the tech giant for flouting a 2021 decree. The charge: keeping the App Store gate shut to alternative payment systems. The judge is thus asking Apple to tear down its commission fortress for purchases made outside its own digital realm, potentially reshaping the entire app economy.
Apple is asking an appeals court to put that ruling on hold while the company challenges it.
Separately, Epic on Friday accused Apple of removing Fortnite from third-party marketplaces in the European Union. Apple rejected the assertion.
The bombshell: On April 30, in a scorching decision, Judge Gonzalez Rogers accused an Apple executive of perjury and set a legal firestorm alight. Having raised the specter of criminal contempt, she is now urging the federal prosecutors to determine whether Apple took flippantly an alleged violation of the Court’s order of 2021-that casts incalculably dimmer shadow thereto upon the already steeply inclined terrain of this legal battle.
The case is Epic Games Inc. v. Apple Inc., 20-cv-05640, US District Court, Northern District of California (Oakland).
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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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