Apple Sues Epic Games, Seeks Damages For Breach of Contract

Apple has removed Fortnite from the App Store for violating its policies.

Apple has sued Epic Games over its violations of the App Store contract.

(Photo: The Quint)

The whole Apple versus Epic Games episode has taken an unexpected turn as Apple has sued Epic Games, claiming damages for breach of its App Store’s contract.

The Cupertino-based tech giant has requested monetary compensation if it’s able to convince the judges that it was right in kicking Fortnite game out of the App Store.

While Epic Games has blamed Apple for restricting its business on the App Store, the iPhone maker has hit back again, saying the arguments are "self-righteous" and "self-interested", the media reported on Wednesday.

In its latest court filing, Apple said Epic has benefited from Apple's promotion and developer tools, earning more than $600 million through the App Store.

“Although Epic portrays itself as a modern corporate Robin Hood, in reality, it is a multi-billion dollar enterprise that simply wants to pay nothing for the tremendous value it derives from the App Store,” it said in the filing.

Apple accused Epic Games of seeking a special deal before ultimately breaching its contract with the update, reports the BBC.

It was last month that a US judge ruled that Apple cannot delete the developer account of Epic Games from the App Store, that offers support for an open and real-time 3D creation platform called Unreal Engine but it can remove Fortnite if it wishes to.

Apple had pulled out Fortnite earlier on 13 August for adding an in-app payment system in violation of the App Store rules.

In its court filing, Apple denied that its 30 percent commission was anti-competitive, saying it was Epic Games that violated its contract.

In the meantime, Epic has filed a motion that seeks a preliminary injunction against Apple which might pave a way for Fornite to make a comeback to the App Store. As per the motion, more than 116 million players registered Fornite players have accessed the game via Apple devices.

“Apple is a monopolist. It controls all app distribution on iOS. It controls all in-app payment processing for digital content on iOS. It unlawfully maintains these two monopolies by explicitly prohibiting any competitive entry in either market,” Epic Games said in the filing.

Fortnite has a huge following of over 350 million monthly active players and is available on multiple platforms.

Epic Games argued it is "likely to suffer irreparable harm" in the absence of a preliminary injunction and that "the balance of harms tips sharply in Epic's favour."

Due to this ongoing battle, the daily active users of the Fortnite have plummeted more than 60 percent on Apple iOS devices.

(With inputs from IANS.)