The past few years’ worth of gaming news have been something of a whirlwind to say the least, so let us take a moment to recount events. In 2020, Epic hit both Google and Apple with lawsuits that claimed both of their mobile app storefronts were monopolist because they wouldn’t allow for third-party payment options – a legal fight that kicked off when the mobile version of Fortnite introduced a secondary in-app purchase option on the slick, causing the game to be kicked off of iOS and Android.
After a year of legal slap fighting, the judge hearing the Epic v Apple case mostly ruled in favor of Apple, stating that Apple wasn’t being monopolist but also issuing a permanent injunction that stops Apple from blocking third-party purchase mechanisms. The matter would then shuffle forward through the appellate process, starting with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld the original ruling, then to the Supreme Court, where it hung in legal limbo through 2023, though the third-party purchase injunction on Apple was delayed in the meantime.
The Supreme Court has finally made its decision this week, which was to throw the appeals by both companies out entirely. The court’s decision effectively makes the original 2021 ruling final and further ends the injunction freeze for Apple.
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney bemoaned the decision in a Twitter thread, calling the Supreme Court rejection a “sad outcome for all developers” while still looking at the silver lining of mobile game devs being allowed to exercise their “court-established right to tell US customers about better prices on the web.” Sweeney also vowed that the “fight goes on” as he referenced the EU’s Digital Markets Act that goes into effect on March 7th. Apple provided no comment on the decision.
As for the Google portion of the wider Epic Games fight, a jury found last December that Google did engage in monopolist practices, a decision that Google has vowed to appeal.
