Oliver Haslam on April 24, 2023, 11:48 pm

Epic Loses Out In App Store Lawsuit Battle With Apple — Again

Apple has won another victory in its legal battle with Epic Games, this time after the Fortnite developer had appealed over a previous decision relating to antitrust claims.

Epic had already lost a lawsuit in which it claimed that Apple’s App Store was anticompetitive after Fortnite was booted because it implemented third-party payment systems.

Epic appealed, but has now lost that appeal on nine out of 10 counts after the Ninth Circuit Court Of Appeals ruled, reports Bloomberg.

“There is a lively and important debate about the role played in our economy and democracy by online transaction platforms with market power,” the three-judge panel said. “Our job as a federal court of appeals, however, is not to resolve that debate — nor could we even attempt to do so. Instead, in this decision, we faithfully applied existing precedent to the facts.”

It’s thought that Apple might be getting ready to go a step further than any of this discusses by allowing third-party app stores with iOS 17. However, it’s thought that Apple will only allow those app stores in the EU, where new legislation will force it. However, it isn’t clear what that will mean in terms of payments and those app stores may still be forced to give Apple a cut of all transactions processed on an iPhone or iPad.