- A judge ruled that Apple made an “intentional violation” of past orders
- Apple must immediately change the rules of your application store
- That means that Fortnite I could return imminently to the App Store
Apple and Fortnite The developer Epic Games has been going through a very public dispute in recent years, with much of the disagreement focused on the rates that Apple charges applications to be executed on its platforms. Now a judge dictated that Apple deliberately breached an order ordered by the Court, and could result in Fortnite Rastically returning to the App Store.
The court order in question declared that Apple must allow third -party developers to tell their users that they could obtain cheaper offers buying applications on different websites or application stores, that is, going to another place other than the official app store.
However, the judge who presided over that case has now declared that Apple undertook an “intentional violation” of the order. This is because, although Apple allowed developers to be linked to external application stores, it still charged a commission for these purchases, and also maintained tight control over how these links outside the site could be written and presented.
The judge ruled that this was a continuation of the anticompetitive practices that the original court order sought to prohibit and has told Apple to immediately change its App Store practices.
Apple now cannot prevent developers from telling users about external application stores, they cannot issue where external links are placed or how they are written, and cannot collect a sales commission made outside their own application store.
For his part, Apple has told Macrumors that “we disagree with the decision. We will comply with the order of the court and appeal.” Clearly, this whole saga is far from finishing.
What does this mean for you?
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this case is the way it could affect the game in the heart of everything: Fortnite. The megapopular title has been prohibited in the application store since Apple declared that Epic Games was trying to avoid the Apple commission. Soon, however, I could do a dramatic return.
That is because Epic Games CEO, Tim Sweeney, recently led X to announce that Fortnite He will return to the App Store “next week.” At the same time, Sweeney announced a “peace proposal” that could end the dispute with Apple once and for all.
In Sweeney’s words, “if Apple extends the Tax without Friction of the Court worldwide, we will return, we will return Fortnite to the app store worldwide and release current and future litigation on the subject. “
The original decision was only applied to the US App Store. UU., Hence Sweeney’s suggestion that Apple should apply the new rules worldwide. If Apple does, we could have a great shaking of the app store, with Fortnite Leading the way.
