Apple’s years-long legal battle with Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, has made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court said Tuesday that it has agreed to hear Apple’s appeal of a ruling that found the tech giant in contempt for violating a court order meant to loosen its control over in-app transactions, Bloomberg and other outlets reported. Epic’s fight with Apple dates back to 2020, when the company sued both Google and Apple after Fortnite was removed from the iOS App Store and Google Play Store. The removals came after Epic announced it was adding a direct payment option that bypassed the companies’ native payment systems. The lawsuits challenged what Epic characterized as Google and Apple’s monopolistic practices over the high commissions they charge developers and how difficult they make it for users to download third-party app store alternatives like the Epic Games Store.
Google and Epic settled their beef earlier this year, with Epic CEO Tim Sweeney even agreeing to stop attacking Google’s app store policies. Apple’s fight with Epic, however, is still very much alive. Apple was told to let users use third-party payment options—then charged a fee on those, too Epic largely lost its original case against Apple, but U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled in 2021 that Apple was required to allow developers to direct users to alternative payment options outside the App Store. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later upheld the ruling, meanwhile Supreme Court declined to take up the case at the time.
