Epic Games files appeal against verdict in Apple’s lawsuit

Epic Games yesterday filed an appeal to the final judgment delivered on their lawsuit against Apple on Sept. 10.

A filing from yesterday shared Epic’s plans to call on a higher court to take another look at the case and potentially overturn the original ruling. There were however few details regarding the legal basis for the appeal.

When the verdict was read on Sept. 10, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, issued a 185-page permanent injunction that, while not affirming Epic’s claims of Apple as a monopoly, did highlight anti-competitive conduct the company had been engaging in.

To remedy this, the court ruled that Apple must allow developers to offer third-party purchasing methods within their apps. While now permanent, this was a system that Apple had begun pivoting towards, recently allowing some apps like Netflix, Spotify, and Kindle to link to their external purchasing pages beginning in 2022.

Following the verdict, despite third-party payment methods being made a permanent fixture, Epic CEO and founder Tim Sweeney took to social media to speak about their “loss,” citing that they’ll continue to fight until there “is genuine developer and consumer freedom in software, and fair competition in each mobile platform software component.”

Epic’s lawsuit against Apple began in August 2020 when Fortnite had its developer account revoked after beginning to offer in-app purchases through the Epic’s own system as opposed to using Apple’s payment option. Purchases would be handled outside the app, and would mean that Apple does not receive their 30 percent store fee.

With Epic’s move to file an appeal against the final verdict, this may not yet be the end to the battle these two tech companies have been engaged in for more than a year now.