Epic Games has scored a victory in the lawsuit they filed last year. Epic fought the exuberant cut Apple takes from in-app purchases, and the stipulation app developers could not link to other ways of paying, such as links to the developer’s or apps’ website.
Although the court couldn’t rule Apple was a “monopolist” under state or federal antitrust laws, but there was a point to be made about the anti-competitive behavior the company exhibited under California law.
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez explained her ruling in a 185-page permanent injunction.
Last year Apple banned Fortnite from the Apple Store after Epic games integrated its own form of purchase system to circumvent the 30% cut Apple would take otherwise. The game was banned from Google Play as well as a result of that implementation.
Earlier this month, and prior to the ruling by a California court, Apple already announced it would allow certain apps to link directly to their own respective purchase pages starting next year. The apps where this applies to are the likes of Spotify, Kindle, and Netflix, among others.
Just hours after being banned from the Apple Story, Epic filed the lawsuit against Apple, and started a media campaign titled “Project Liberty”. They even went as far as recreating the famous 1984 Super Bowl ad Apple made to provoke their then competitor IBM.
They also founded the Coalition for App Fairness together with Spotify, and Match Group, the parent company of dating apps OkCupid, Tinder, Hinge, Bumble, and Match.com.
Read More:
- Epic Games to hand out V-bucks in loot box lawsuit settlement
- Are Epic Games and Apple burying the Hatchet? – Fortnite to return to iOS in Korea
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Image credit: Niels Epting (flickr.com)