Epic Games’ popular title “Fortnite” is set to return to the iOS App Store in the United States. According to court documents reviewed by Variety, a California District Court determined that Apple willfully violated the court order in the Epic Games versus Apple lawsuit. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers stated in the documents, “For the reasons set forth herein, the Court finds Apple in willful violation of this Court’s 2021 Injunction which aimed to restrain and prohibit Apple’s anticompetitive conduct and pricing. Apple’s attempts to interfere with competition will not be tolerated.”\nThe lawsuit by Epic Games accused Apple of acting as a monopoly, taking a 30% cut on all in-app purchases while banning alternative payment methods. The court documents emphasized, “This is an injunction, not a negotiation. There are no do-overs once a party willfully disregards a court order.” The court further ordered Apple to immediately cease impeding developers’ ability to communicate with users and refrain from imposing commissions on off-app purchases.\nEpic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney responded to the court’s findings on X, stating, “NO FEES on web transactions. Game over for the Apple Tax.” He added that Apple’s 15-30% fees are now invalid in the U.S., similar to the situation in Europe under the Digital Markets Act. Sweeney also announced that “Fortnite” would return to the U.S. iOS App Store the following week, though international issues remain unresolved.\nIn a press call, Sweeney highlighted the victory for developers, explaining that all developers can now offer both Apple’s payment service and their own, without Apple charging fees on the developers’ own services. This forces Apple to compete with other payment services rather than blocking them.\n— new from Variety
