When Epic filed recently to have its popular Fortnite game relisted in the App Store, Apple rejected the submission. According to a tweet written by Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, Apple said that it wouldn’t make a decision whether to reinstate Fortnite on the App Store until the 9th Circuit Court rules on Apple’s request for a stay. Apple seeks to block a court order that prevents it from charging developers a fee for app purchases made outside the App Store. That ruling might not be made until later this month or next month.
But Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who was presiding over the original Epic v. Apple case in 2021, wrote out an order on Monday that said, “Apple is fully capable of resolving this issue without further briefing or a hearing.” Having said that, Judge Rogers made it clear that she wants Apple and Epic to come to a resolution on their own. If they can’t, she wrote, “the Apple official who is personally responsible for ensuring compliance shall personally appear” at an upcoming hearing scheduled for May 27th in the Northern District of California.
The judge also noted in her order on Monday that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals still hasn’t issued Apple its requested stay after 12 days. Last month, Judge Rogers accused Apple Vice President of Finance Alex Roman of lying to the court about when Apple decided to start charging a 27% commission on purchases made outside of the App Store. This commission charged by Apple violated the original order made by Judge Rogers while ruling on the first Epic v. Apple suit in 2020.
You might recall that Apple pulled Fortnite out of the App Store in 2020 after Epic included links to its own in-app payment processing platform with the iOS version of Fortnite. This violated Apple’s App Store rules since it allowed Epic to avoid paying Apple its 30% commission on in-app purchases. About a week and a half ago, Epic called Apple’s request for a stay “a last ditch effort to block competition and extract massive junk fees at the expense of consumers and developers.”
