Surely the gaming commentariat has not forgotten the drawn-out popcorn drama that was the Epic v. Apple case, right? It was one of the few highlights of 2020, when Epic injected a secondary in-app purchase option for Fortnite mobile, was summarily kicked off Apple and Google’s mobile platforms, and then sued them both over mobile storefront monopoly claims. Epic didn’t win on that count when the suit concluded in 2021, but it did get a permanent injunction against Apple that effectively ensured third-party purchasing options couldn’t be blocked. And then the Supreme Court tossed all the remaining appeals last year, locking in the 2021 decision.
You’d think it’d be over, but there was a little follow-up to the drama. Just a few months after the USSC’s ruling, Epic Games asked the courts to hold Apple in contempt for violating the finalized injunction on the grounds that Apple was imposing fees and rules for outside payment options – essentially, making it financially insane for anyone to make use of those options and therefore effectively circumventing the injunction. The likes of Facebook, Twitter, and Microsoft joined Epic in amicus briefs at the time.
And now we’re getting the ruling there, as the original judge, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, was not remotely amused by Apple’s antics. In her order filed yesterday, Gonzalez Rogers found Apple in “willful violation” of the court’s 2021 injunction.
“Apple’s response to the Injunction strains credulity,” she writes. “After two sets of evidentiary hearings, the truth emerged. Apple, despite knowing its obligations thereunder, thwarted the Injunction’s goals, and continued its anticompetitive conduct solely to maintain its revenue stream. Remarkably, Apple believed that this Court would not see through its obvious cover-up (the 2024 evidentiary hearing). To unveil Apple’s actual decision-making process, not the one tailor-made for litigation, the Court ordered production of real-time documents and ultimately held a second set of hearings in 2025.”
This is an 80-page document, but if you’re having a bad day, it’s fun to flip through 80 pages of the Hon. Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers spitting fire directly at rich men who thought they’d get away with subverting her orders. By the end of it, we are treated to an Apple exec who was shitposting in texts during the evidentiary hearings, Gonzalez Rogers referring the matter to the US Attorney in California for possible criminal contempt, financial penalties for Apple for playing dirty with court delays, and oh yeah, did we mention victory for Epic Games?
“Apple willfully chose not to comply with this Court’s Injunction. It did so with the express intent to create new anticompetitive barriers which would, by design and in effect, maintain a valued revenue stream; a revenue stream previously found to be anticompetitive. That it thought this Court would tolerate such insubordination was a gross miscalculation. As always, the cover-up made it worse. For this Court, there is no second bite at the apple.”
In the short term, the ruling spells out that Apple is not only blocked from adding additional fees to third-party app purchases but also blocked from manipulating buttons and links in those apps. Obviously, Apple will appeal the order, but in the meantime, Epic is hoping to bring Fortnite back next week.
