Fortnite creator sues Apple, Google over app store bans
Epic Games fighting 30% commission demanded by tech giants
Apple’s and Google’s spats with app developers over their cut of revenues exploded into a highstakes clash Thursday when the tech giants kicked the popular game Fortnite out of their app stores and the game’s maker hit back with lawsuits.
The fight began Thursday morning with a clear provocation. Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, started encouraging Fortnite’s mobile-app users to pay it directly, rather than through Apple or Google. The companies require that they handle all such app payments so they can collect a 30 per cent commission, a policy that has been at the centre of antitrust complaints against the companies.
Hours later, Apple responded, removing the Fortnite app from its App Store.
Within an hour, Epic sued Apple in federal court, accusing the company of violating antitrust laws by forcing developers to use its payment systems.
“Apple’s removal of Fortnite is yet another example of Apple flexing its enormous power in order to impose unreasonable restraints and unlawfully maintain its 100 per cent monopoly over the” market for in-app payments on iPhones, Epic said in its 62-page lawsuit.
Then, Epic rolled out a sophisticated public-relations campaign that depicted Apple, one of industry’s most image-conscious companies, as the stodgy old guard trying to stifle the upstart.
Later Thursday, Google also removed the Fortnite app from its official Android app store, the Google Play Store, saying the app violated Google’s policies. Epic replied with a similar lawsuit.
Apple now faces a battle with one of its most lucrative partners over a crucial issue for antitrust regulators investigating the power of Big Tech.
How Apple polices the App Store has drawn intense scrutiny over the past year. App developers have complained that Apple is taking an unfair cut of their business while, in many cases, also competing with their apps with its own offerings.
In practical terms, kicking Fortnite out of the App Store means that new users will not be able to download the app, but it will continue to work on iPhones that already have the app installed. Yet Epic now cannot update the Fortnite app, meaning it will eventually become obsolete as Apple updates the iPhone software.
For Android users, there will be much less of an impact; they can still download Fortnite from Epic’s website. As a result, hordes of Fortnite fans could now favour Google’s devices over Apple’s.