A federal judge is demanding that Apple either approve an application to list Fortnite on the U.S. App Store or return to court to explain the legal reasons why it has not done so.
In a new filing, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers confirms that the court has received Epic Games’ latest motion to approve Fortnite for distribution on the App Store.
The visibly irritated judge is asking Apple to show the court “the legal basis on which Apple claims it can ignore this court order.” Gonzalez Rogers also suggests that Apple will have to return to court for clarification if the situation is not resolved.
“Apple is fully capable of resolving this matter without additional briefings or hearings,” Gonzalez Rogers reminds the tech giant, before adding that Apple must name the company official responsible for enforcing the court order.
Reading between the lines, the request to name an Apple official in the new statement suggests that Gonzalez Rogers is not giving up on the contempt of court charges for failing to comply with the injunction.
This follows her previous ruling, in which the judge criticized Apple for trying to circumvent the injunction and accused the tech company of lying under oath.
After Epic Games was granted the right to include links to third-party payment mechanisms in its app, it resubmitted Fortnite to the U.S. App Store. However, Apple told the developer that it had decided not to take action on Epic Games’ application until the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Apple’s request for a partial stay of the new injunction, which is pending. (In other words, Apple said it was not obligated to approve the app until its appeal is complete.)
Epic Games filed a motion Friday to compel the court to enforce the injunction in light of Apple’s ruling.
This latest legal threat comes after years of legal wrangling over Apple’s App Store policy, which has long denied app developers the right to link to external payment methods without paying Apple a fee. Apple initially complied with the court’s ruling, allowing U.S. developers to apply for exceptions to the App Store rules, but still charged a 27% fee on those alternative purchases, instead of the usual 30%. Apple also required developers to use “scary screens” that warned consumers when they clicked a button to make a purchase outside of the App Store.
In a major victory for developers, Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Apple “willfully violated” a court order on anticompetitive pricing and commissions, which would have seemingly allowed Fortnite to return to the App Store. Instead, Apple sat idly by for a week, neither approving nor denying the game’s release while its lawyers prepared a response.
What happens next could be significant for Apple, as it could inspire similar lawsuits or regulation in other markets around the world.
Apple won Epic’s initial antitrust case against the tech giant, with the court finding that the company was not a monopoly. Epic Games did win one area, however, when Gonzalez Rogers agreed that iPhone users should have access to alternative payment options if a developer wanted to use its own website for in-app purchases, such as virtual goods or subscriptions.
Following the decision, Apple updated its App Store policies for the US, and services like Spotify, Amazon Kindle, and Patreon quickly released new versions of their apps to take advantage of the new functionality.
Epic Games declined to comment. Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
