Apple Prevails in Epic Games' App Store Lawsuit

A U.S. Circuit Court ruled in Apple’s favor on nine out of 10 claims concerning the big tech giant’s App Store regulations.

Apple claimed victory on Monday in an antitrust lawsuit that Epic Games has waged for the past three years.

The mobile game maker originally sued Apple in 2020 after the big tech company banned the Fortnite app from the App Store. The ban came after Epic Games implemented a new payment system that bypassed Apple’s in-app purchase structure. After Apple won in initial court proceedings, Epic Games appealed multiple times. The video game and software developer took a final blow on Monday after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in Apple’s favor on nine out of 10 claims.

“For the second time in two years, a federal court has ruled that Apple abides by antitrust laws at the state and federal levels,” Apple said in a statement. “The App Store continues to promote competition, drive innovation, and expand opportunity, and we’re proud of its profound contributions to both users and developers around the world. We respectfully disagree with the court’s ruling on the one remaining claim under state law and are considering further review.”

Apple’s oversight of the App Store gives the company the right to reject any updates, take whatever percentage of sales it pleases, and even ban apps altogether. Epic Games was fighting against Apple’s strict app store regulations, and the game maker losing this case wasn’t just a blow for itself; it was a blow to game developers and app makers as a whole.

Epic Games did prevail on one claim against Apple that could potentially allow developers to place links inside their apps to entice users to make purchases outside of the App Store. Further court proceedings would need to happen before that practice is put into place.

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney shared his sentiments on the court decision in a series of tweets.

Fortunately, the court's positive decision rejecting Apple's anti-steering provisions frees iOS developers to send consumers to the web to do business with them directly there. We're working on next steps.
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) April 24, 2023

This big win for Apple comes as the Department of Justice is running its own antitrust investigation against the company. The DOJ hasn’t filed an official lawsuit against Apple, but it’s looking into the big tech company’s third-party app practices and whether it illegally favors its own products over others.