Epic Games Files Appeal of Lawsuit Ruling Against Apple Inc.

Epic Games is continuing its legal crusade against Apple Inc. with an appeal to the ruling of the company's lengthy lawsuit.

The original lawsuit was filed over a year ago in August 2020 in a northern Calif. district court—though it would not go to trial until May 3, 2021. It consisted of ten counts in total revolving around the concept of monopolization and overreaching business practices. Evidence was presented to the presiding judge, the Honorable Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, until May 24. She would go on to review the evidence and hand down her ruling on Friday, Sept. 10, siding in favor of Apple for nine out of the ten counts.

Epic Games Files Appeal of Lawsuit Against Apple Inc.

This, obviously, didn't sit well with Epic. The company filed its appeal to the ruling on Sunday, Sept. 12 against "all orders leading to or producing that judgment."

Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, published a tweet via his own Twitter account in defiance of the ruling hours after it was handed down. He wrote that it wasn't "a win" for developers or consumers and that the company is fighting "for fair competition among in-app payment methods."

"Fortnite will return to the iOS App Store when and where Epic can offer in-app payment in fair competition with Apple in-app payment, passing along the savings to consumers." Sweeney wrote.

Judge Gonzalez Rogers' decision ruled that Apple was not in violation of any antitrust laws and, therefore, its success in the marketplace as a distributor was legal. Epic was ordered to pay the 30% in revenue it had managed to circumvent from Apple in accordance with its original contract.

"Epic Games failed in its burden to demonstrate Apple is an illegal monopolist," the ruling read.

However, the judge did find that Apple's conduct was at odds with fair competition behavior under Calif. law. She ordered the company to include direction to other avenues of payment beyond that which funneled into Apple.