The epic game won in an ongoing legal dispute with Apple. As a result, Fortnite could return to the US iOS app store as early as next week.
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said in Wednesday's ruling that Apple was a “willful violation” of a 2021 injunction that banned the company from anti-competitive pricing.
Apple has won a lot of debate on the Epic Games Trial. One notable exception was the ruling that prohibits Apple from collecting fees for purchases made outside the app itself. Back then, Apple was told to change its app store so developers could direct customers to websites that users could purchase.
Not only did Apple not follow, it “deliberately” with the intention of creating new anti-competitive barriers.
“That this court considered such disobedience to be a serious miscalculation. As usual, the cover-up made it worse. For this court, there was no second bite on the apple,” Rogers said in the ruling. She took a step further and introduced the case to a US lawyer to review it on the possible proceedings of criminal cont crimes.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has announced that he will use X to return Fortnite games to the US app store soon next week.
As reported by The Verge, Sweeney has extended its proposal to Apple as well. “If Apple extends Worldwide's Apple's frictionless, frictionless framework, it will bring Fortnite back to App Stores around the world and drop current and future lawsuits on topics,” he writes.
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The ruling was celebrated by other high-tech companies affected by Apple's policies.
“This groundbreaking court ruling is a victory for developers everywhere,” Spotify spokesperson Jeanne Moran said in an email. “Spotify will quickly move to submit app updates to Apple, improving the experience for consumers across the country.”