Apple asks Supreme Court to hear challenge to Fortnite creator antitrust ruling
Christopher Hutton
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Apple announced that it intends to ask the Supreme Court to hear its appeal regarding a judge’s order involving an antitrust case restricting the company’s payment practices on the Apple App Store.
The Big Tech company stated in a Monday filing that it would ask the Supreme Court to take up its appeal of a ruling by the California-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld most of the initial decision made by the court regarding Fortnite developer Epic Games’s lawsuit against the company in 2021. The company requested in the filing that the injunction, which would require Apple to change several aspects of how it runs its app store’s transaction system, be put on a pause until it filed its appeal to the Supreme Court on Friday.
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Apple’s lawyers argued that the initial 9th Circuit ruling reached too far in issuing a nationwide injunction based on violating California’s laws. They allege that the petition would raise “far-reaching and important” questions.
In August 2020, Epic Games decided to allow Fortnite players to save money by purchasing V-Bucks, the in-game currency, through Epic Games’s website. That decision would cut Apple out as the middleman and not require Epic to pay Apple a 30% fee on the transaction. Apple reciprocated by booting Fortnite from its app store. Epic filed a suit against the company, alleging they were maintaining an “absolute monopoly” over the affair.
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The court initially ruled that Apple had not breached antitrust law as Epic had originally alleged but that the company had violated California’s Unfair Competition law and had to amend the app store. The 9th Circuit upheld both decisions in April 2023.