Epic Games has filed a second motion in U.S. District Court demanding Apple comply with a federal injunction and allow Fortnite back on the App Store.
In its latest legal move, Epic accuses Apple of violating a court order by refusing to review a newly submitted Fortnite app for iOS in the United States.
“Apple broke its week-long silence…saying they will not act on the Fortnite app submission until the Ninth Circuit Court rules on the partial stay,” Epic said Friday evening. “We believe this violates the Court’s Injunction and we have filed a second Motion to Enforce.”
Epic argues that the app it submitted on May 14 includes both Apple’s in-app payment system and a link to Epic’s own store—exactly what the court’s April 30 injunction allows. That injunction barred Apple from blocking apps that contain external links for payments and warned Apple against further attempts to interfere with competition.
“We’ve been transparent with Apple about our intentions while they’ve used app review and notarization as a pretext to circumvent the Court’s injunction,” Epic wrote. “Apple is again retaliating against Epic for challenging the legality of their anticompetitive behaviour and we will fight on.”
Apple, in a May 15 letter (shared by Epic Games) as part of the court filing, defended its decision, saying it would not review the Fortnite submission until a ruling on its appeal is made. Apple also claimed that Epic’s developer account termination from 2020 still stands and applies to any related entities, including Epic Games Sweden AB, which submitted the new Fortnite app.
“Apple has previously denied requests to reinstate the Epic Games developer account,” wrote Apple’s legal counsel. “We have informed you that Apple will not revisit that decision until after the U.S. litigation between the parties concludes.”
Epic says the delay has already caused its planned May 16 Fortnite update to miss its launch window on iOS in the U.S. The company is asking the court to compel Apple to review and approve any compliant version of Fortnite immediately.
A hearing on the motion is scheduled for May 27 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
The Epic Games versus Apple legal war continues to get spicy. Grab your popcorn, folks—the drama isn’t over yet as it seems we’re just heating up again. What do you think? Will Apple let Fortnite return to the App Store?
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“saying it would not review the Fortnite submission until a ruling on its appeal is made”
Not how the law works. Apple will instantly lose.