It may not have been all bad for Epic in the Apple lawsuit, but it was certainly Apple who emerged as the winner.
Epic was unable to persuade Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who ruled against the firm in a case against Android OEMs. It’s true that Epic must now offer access to alternative payment methods for developers, but it isn’t enough. Epic has appealed the decision.
Epic Games does not give up, but it has it complicated
The judgment in fact forces Epic to pay $3.65 million to Apple for violating its App Store rules, plus 30% of what Epic collected with its own payment gateway since November 2020.
The most difficult defeat was the one that portrayed Epic’s lawyers as wanting to give Apple a monopoly image with its App Store. The objective was to persuade the court to demand that future versions of the software, like as in Windows or Android, allow for other app stores.
The App Store, run by Apple, will remain the only method to locate and install software even if it is possible to pay for it in other ways, according to Epic and other firms such as Spotify.
The appeal of Epic Games does not make it clear what the company’s goals are in this legal procedure, but it’s likely that Apple will also pursue an appeal. The dispute will almost certainly continue to have implications, but Apple appears to have come out on top at least in the United States. We’ll see how things turn out in Europe.
