Epic Games appeal against Apple shut down by Supreme Court
Epic Games' antitrust appeal hasn't made it to the Supreme Court. The appeal was denied, leaving much of the decision largely in Apple's favour.
16th Jan 2024 17:46
Image via Epic Games
Epic Games appeal against Apple shut down by Supreme Court
Epic Games' antitrust appeal hasn't made it to the Supreme Court. The appeal was denied, leaving much of the decision largely in Apple's favour.
16th Jan 2024 17:46
Image via Epic Games
Epic's appeal against the decision of the antitrust dispute between the company and Apple has been shot down by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court refused to hear the case, leaving much of the decision in Apple's favour.
The news will come as a blow to Epic Games, with the company filing a lawsuit way back in 2020 accusing Apple of monopolising its platform when Apple banned Fortnite from its App Store. The reason? Epic suggested Fortnite players circumnavigate the App Store to avoid the tech giant taking a chunk of its earnings.
Apple may have finally 'won' against Epic Games
In the intervening years, Apple was adjudged to have been 'anti-competitive' with an "anti-steering" rule and has had to amend its App Store processes to allow for users to be informed about payment options outside of the digital storefront, but it won on every other count. Apple doesn't have to make changes to its policies.
Apple did, however, appeal to change the decision on its "anti-steering" rule, while Epic has appealed, too, presumably against just about anything else.
The outcome, however, is the Supreme Court upholding the lower court's verdict, and telling both of them to get on with things.
The state of Fortnite on mobile
Despite the size of Fortnite as a game and cultural touchstone for an entire generation, it's still not playable on phones without sideloading on Android.
That's because Epic also took Google to court for pretty much the same reason it did Apple, suggesting it too is a monopoly. That led to it being pulled from the Google Play store, too.
Still, at least you can play Fortnite on Switch if you need to check in with Peely and the gang on the go. As far as mobile goes, though, it appears we're not quite ready for Apple, Google, and Epic to make up just yet.
About The Author
Lloyd Coombes
Lloyd is GGRecon's Editor-in-Chief, having previously worked at Dexerto and Gfinity, and occasionally appears in The Daily Star newspaper. A big fan of loot-based games including Destiny 2 and Diablo 4, when he's not working you'll find him at the gym or trying to play Magic The Gathering.
