Apple wins legal battle against Epic Games

Apple has won a lengthy legal battle against Fortnite creator Epic Games in an allegation over politics.Yoantitrust ethics.

As Bloomberg reported, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a 2021 ruling by a trial judge that largely rejected Epic’s claims that Apple violated federal law by not allowing any marketplace on the Internet. competition on its iOS platform.

Epic’s antitrust lawsuit against the iPhone maker began in August 2020 after it moved to circumvent Apple’s 30% platform fees with a new direct payment option in Fortnite, leading to the game’s removal from the App Store and the cancellation of the Epic developer account.

After the trial judge in the case ruled against Epic on nine of the 10 charges it had filed against Apple, the company announced it would appeal the decision.

“There is a lively and important debate about the role online trading platforms with market power play in our economy and democracy”the three-judge appeals panel said in the latest ruling on the case.

“However, our job as a federal appeals court is not to resolve that debate, nor could we even attempt to. Instead, in this decision, we faithfully applied existing precedent to the facts.”

Following the original ruling, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney wrote to Apple asking it to reactivate the company’s Fortnite developer account and promising “adhere to Apple’s guidelines whenever and wherever we release products on Apple platforms.”