Apple and Epic Games today resumed their ongoing legal battle, as lawyers for both companies met in the United States Court of Appeals to attempt to get the initial ruling from last year overturned.
The legal battle stretches back to 2020, when Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store, just hours after Epic Games debuted a new direct payment option to get around Apple’s in-app purchases rules that give the Cupertino firm a 30% cut of the action. Epic Games then filed a lawsuit against Apple for pulling Fortnite from the App Store.
Epic Games had been seeking a ruling from the court that would allow for third-party app stores and alternate methods of getting apps on iOS devices, but Epic Games largely lost the lawsuit, leading it to file an appeal. While Apple mostly won the suit, the judge did order Apple to allow developers to include in-app links to outside websites where payments could be accepted.
Apple also appealed, as it did not want to modify its App Store rules, which led to the court battle kicking off today. Epic Games has argued in its appeal that Judge Gonzalez Roberts had “erred” in her judgment. The Epic Games document measures in at around 135 pages and details Epic’s arguments as to why it lost nine of ten counts.
Apple maintains that because it was not found to be guilty of anticompetitive behavior, the App Store rules should stand pat and that the district court did not have the authority to mandate an injunction.