The lawsuit between Epic and Apple continues.
Apple has filed a response to Epic’s lawsuit, calling out the company’s hotfix update as a “Trojan Horse” and referring to their “legion of lawyers, publicists, and technicians” in reference to Epic’s lawsuit and the accompanying public relations campaign Epic has been engaging in since the lawsuit was filed.
All of this of course stems from Apple’s removal of Fortnite from the App Store following Epic’s attempt at subverting store fees. Last month Epic launched Direct Pay while dropping V-Buck prices 20% and offering direct methods of payment on iOS and Android, circumventing the store cut in violation of both company’s license agreements. Within hours Fortnite had been removed from both the App Store and Google Play, a measure that Epic had clearly not only anticipated but planned for. Barely hours after the removal, Epic filed a lawsuit against Apple (and later against Google) charging Sherman Act anti-trust violations.
The lawsuit has also been joined by a mass media campaign including a parody of Apple’s 1984 short and a tournament where players could win the “Tart Tycoon” skin.
Unbeknownst to Apple, Epic had been busy enlisting a legion of lawyers, publicists, and technicians to orchestrate a sneak assault on the App Store. Shortly after 2:00 a.m. on August 13, 2020, the morning on which Epic would activate its hidden commission-theft functionality, Mr. Sweeney again emailed Apple executives, declaring that “Epic will no longer adhere to Apple’s payment processing restrictions.” According to Mr. Sweeney, Epic would continue to use Apple’s App Store but would “offer[] customers the choice” to pay Epic instead of Apple, effectively depriving Apple of any return on its innovation and investment in the App Store and placing Epic in open breach of years-long contractual obligations to which Epic and all other Apple developers have agreed.
. The response goes right for the jugular, calling Tim Sweeny self-righteous and self-interested, and demands compensatory and punitive damages for Epic’s breach of contract. The counterclaim also rejects Tim Sweeney’s public statements that Epic did not ask for special treatment.
On June 30, 2020, Epic renewed the License Agreement with Apple for another one-year term—reaffirming Epic’s obligations under that agreement and accepting the services and licenses provided by Apple under that agreement. That same day, just hours later, Epic’s CEO emailed Apple, insisting that Apple: (a) allow Epic to introduce an external payment mechanism to its apps outside of IAP that would allow Epic to circumvent Apple commissions on inapp purchases and otherwise violate multiple provisions of the parties’ agreements; and (b) publish in the App Store an Epic Games Store app that would enable Epic to introduce apps without going through Apple’s app review process. Epic’s CEO expressly admitted that “Apple’s contracts and standards documents . . . prohibit[ed] Epic” from the exact conduct it proposed to undertake. In spite of his public tweet only weeks earlier that Epic “w[ould] not accept special revenue sharing or payment terms just for ourselves,” Epic’s CEO did just that: he requested from Apple a “side letter”—a special arrangement for Epic and no other developer—that would excuse Epic from the contractual obligations and standards applicable to all developers who offer products in the App Store.
Apple has asked the court to put a halt to Epic’s direct pay system currently still available on the iOS Fortnite as well as provide restitution for all earnings owed to Apple that would have been received had people made their purchases through the App Store payment processing.
Source: Filing
MMO Fallout 