After last month’s bombshell legal ruling forcing Apple to allow the use of external payment processors for in-app purchases on iOS, Epic CEO and founder Tim Sweeney said Epic Games was “going to do everything we can to bring Fortnite back to the iOS App Store.” That “everything” now includes a legal motion in the District Court of California seeking to force Apple to “accept any compliant version of Fortnite onto the US storefront of the App Store.”
Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store and terminated Epic’s US App Store account in August 2020 after Epic snuck its famous Epic Direct Payments “hotfix” into the game (thereby setting off a yearslong legal battle). On May 9, though, Epic used an iOS account for its Swedish subsidiary—which was recently used to take advantage of Europe’s DMA policies—to submit a new version of Fortnite to the US App Store.
Apple formally rejected that submission on May 15, saying in a letter shared by Epic that it believes the recent court rulings “do not diminish Apple’s bases and legal right to have terminated Epic Games’ [iOS developer account].” Even under that new ruling, Apple notes, the 2020 “hotfix” allowing Epic Direct Payments inside the app rather than via an external storefront would still violate Apple’s current lawful restrictions on such practices.