- Epic Games has filed an appeal against judge Gonzalez-Rogers’ decision
- The game company is not content with the court’s final verdict
- Tim Sweeney continues to demand a freer app market
Discontent with the judge’s decision in the Apple lawsuit, Epic Games issue an appeal and demand a higher court reexamines the case.
The Battle Had Ended but the War Has Not
The Epic Games versus Apple lawsuit has been one of the key events for both tech and gaming. Not only did it reveal curious industry details to the public but it also showed that even multi-billion companies aren’t immune to the law. Despite Epic Games ultimately losing on most accounts, Apple’s policies were found to be anti-competitive and the company received an injunction that prohibits it from blocking developers from linking their own payment methods.
Yet, even if this is definitely a step in the direction Epic Games wanted, the company’s chief executive officer Tim Sweeney wasn’t thrilled Judge Gonzalez-Rogers’ ruling. Sweeney thinks that stores like the App Store and Google Play should allow developers not only to link payment methods but to include them in-app as well.
Sweeney shared on his own Twitter that he plans to continue the fight for a “genuine developer and consumer freedom in software, and fair competition in each mobile platform software component.”
As a result, Epic Games filed an appeal, demanding that a higher court takes a look at the case. Little is known about the appeal and what it will result in. However, it is likely that the industry will soon hear more of this.
A Short Summary of the Events Until Now
Back in 2020 Epic Games was already feeling disgruntled by Apple’s taxes and policies. As a provocation, the game company included an in-app payment option in Fortnite, which quickly resulted in the game being removed from the App Store.
This eventually led to the court case where Epic Games accused Apple of monopoly. Epic’s endeavor was supported by the Coalition for App Fairness among whose ranks are Spotify, Basecamp and Match Group.
In the end, Epic lost on nine out of ten instances and had to pay $3.6 million to Apple. Even though the injunction is a serious blow to Apple, it might be less of a big deal than it seems at first glance as the tech company was already slowly shifting to a less strict model and was planning to allow some big apps to link their own payment methods.
This somewhat explains why Sweeney is so keen on continuing to appeal the final verdict. It will be interesting to see how the situation will develop.
