The legal battle between Apple and Epic Games has taken a new turn where Apple has filed counterclaims against Epic Games alleging a “breach of contract”. The legal battle started when Epic Games bypassed the 30% fees charged on every transaction in App Store and introduced their own in-app payment system in Fortnite where they claimed to offer the “V-Bucks” at a discounted price.
After Epic Games tried to bypass this fee, Apple App Store and Google Play Store removed the game from their respective stores and while Fortnite was still available on all the android devices through the game’s official website, there was no way to get this game back on Apple devices.
This started a battle between Apple and Epic Games where the latter company took various steps to get back the game on the Apple App store. Epic Games started with launching a hashtag running by the name “#FreeFortnite” and urged their players and fans to take a stand against apple. This was followed by a mocking video posted on Fortnite’s official channel and a themed community tournament called as “Free Fortnite Championship” as a final event for their iOS device players before updating the game to Chapter Two- Season Four.
Apple has finally retaliated with their own counterclaims filed against Epic Games. According to the claims, “Epic’s lawsuit is nothing more than a basic disagreement over money. Although Epic portrays itself as a modern corporate Robin Hood, in reality it is a multi-billion dollar enterprise that simply wants to pay nothing for the tremendous value it derives from the App Store. Epic’s demands for special treatment and cries of “retaliation” cannot be reconciled with its flagrant breach of contract
and its own business practices, as it rakes in billions by taking commissions on game developers’
sales and charging consumers up to $99.99 for bundles of “V-Bucks.” “
According to The Verge, the Epic Games are supposed to reply by 18th September and the full hearing will be conducted on 28th September. The entire counterclaim report is available here.
