Late Friday, Epic Games sent a letter to U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers accusing Apple of refusing to consider its Fortnite submission, calling it “Apple’s latest attempt to circumvent this Court’s Injunction and this Court’s authority.” 9To5Mac reported.
As reported by Mark Gurman, Epic’s Fortnite submission is Apple’s latest attempt to circumvent this Court’s injunction and this Court’s authority. Epic therefore seeks an order enforcing the injunction, finding Apple on in civil contempt yet again, and requiring Apple to promptly accept any compliant Epic app, including Fortnite, for distribution on the U.S. storefront of the App Store.
The request comes after Apple told Epic Games it would “not revisit” the decision to reinstate the Epic Games developer account “until after the U.S. litigation between the parties concludes.”
Earlier today, Epic informed players that Apple has blocked its most recent Fortnite build, rendering the game unavailable worldwide on iOS until the ban is lifted. Apple countered the claims, stating that it merely asked Epic Sweden (the developer account handling the resubmission) to remove the U.S. storefront from the build so the game could remain live in other regions.
The Verge reported: Epic is asking District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers to order Apple to review — and arrive if compliant with Apple’s guidelines — Epic’s submission of Fortnite to the U.S. App Store in a new court filing.
The company argues in the document that Apple is once again in contempt of the judges April order restricting it from rejecting apps over their use of outside payment links.
In a letter from Apple that Epic shared late Friday, Apple writes that it “won’t take action on the Fortnite app submission until after the Ninth Circuit rules on our pending request for a partial stay of the new injunction.”
Epic claims the delay is retaliation for its legal fight with the company, and notes in its filing that Apple “expressly and repeatedly” told it and the court that it would approve Fortnite if the app compiled with Apple’s guideline, which insist its current submission does.
Engadget reported: After claiming that Apple was blocking Epic from offering Fortnite in both the US App Store and the Epic Games Store in the European Union, Apple now says it wasn’t, according to a report from Bloomberg.
A spokesperson told Bloomberg that Apple “did not take an action to remove the live version of Fortnite from alternative distribution marketplaces,” and that the company wants Epic’s European branch to resubmit the latest game update for publishing, “without including the US storefront of the Apple Store so as to not impact Fortnite in other geographies.”
While that sounds like a denial of wrongdoing, it does imply that Apple specifically doesn’t want Epic to relaunch Fortnite on the US App Store. The company submitted Fortnite for publishing on May 9 following a victory in court that forced Apple to allow developers to support alternative payment methods for apps on the web.