UK court blocks Epic Games efforts to sue Apple over Fortnite

GAMEFINITY.ID, Jakarta – A UK antitrust court ruled on Monday (2/22/2021) that Epic Games will not be allowed to file its case against Apple Inc in the UK. Epic previously sued Apple over the App Store payment system and control over app downloads.

The two companies have been at loggerheads since August, when the maker of the Fortnite game tried to avoid Apple’s 30 percent charge on the App Store by launching its own in-app payment system. This resulted in the ban on Fortnite on Apple and the App Store.

Although it did not approve Epic’s lawsuit against Apple, the British Court said Epic’s lawsuit against Alphabet Inc’s Google could be continued. Epic said it would file a similar lawsuit in US courts, which it judged would be a better forum for its case against Apple.

“Epic will reconsider pursuing its case against Apple in the UK following the settlement of the US case,” the video game company said in a statement responding to the court’s decision.

Apple and Google did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. In October, a federal judge in California ruled that Apple could ban the game Fortnite from its App Store, but not harm Epic’s development business, which includes the “Unreal Engine” software used by hundreds of other video games.

Epic Games founder and chief executive Tim Sweeney has previously said Apple’s control of the platform has left the level of competition unbalanced.