Epic will pay 6 million to Apple and says Fortnite will never set foot in the App Store again. The conclusion of the Epic Games vs. Apple lawsuit has brought about a flurry of derivative lawsuits. The developer of Fornite claims to have paid $6 million in damages after announcing his intention to appeal the verdict. Furthermore, we understand that Fortnite will not be available on the App Store for at least a lengthy season.
Epic will pay 6 million to Apple for damages
Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ordered in the last point of her sentence the payment of damages from Epic to Apple. The CEO of Epic Games posted this tweet last night:
Epic has paid Apple $6,000,000 as ordered by the court. pic.twitter.com/trulCfjE9S
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) September 13, 2021
Epic Games has already returned the amount paid by the court, which would be roughly $6 million. Epic was found to have infringed on Apple’s contract, therefore it had to pay compensation.
Epic was ordered to pay 30% of all revenues generated by its hotfix during the time it was active. Thus, the judge estimates that between August and October 2020 alone, Fortnite generated $12,167,719, which would be about $3.6 million. The remaining amount would have been collected from November until the trial.
Epic applied a hotfix, which gave iOS users who bought their turkeys for Fortnite a 20% discount. So the 30%, which is equal to the App Store fee, is also subtracted from the overall amount. The interpretation made by the judge is that Apple is still entitled to its commission even if the payment is not made within its IAP system.
Fortnite will not return to the App Store
A few days earlier, when the judgment punishing Epic Games’ thesis became known, Sweeney stated on Twitter that Fortnite would not return to the App Store. Or, at least, not in the conditions before its expulsion.
Fortnite will return to the iOS App Store when and where Epic can offer in-app payment in fair competition with Apple in-app payment, passing along the savings to consumers.
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) September 10, 2021
According to Epic’s CEO, their famous game will not return until they can offer in-app payments “in fair competition with Apple’s IAP, passing the savings on to the consumer.” As we said in the previous section, Fortnite’s virtual currency received only a 20% discount when the hotfix was established. So the savings to the consumer is not complete with Epic’s proposal.
With Sweeney’s statement, the CEO is attempting to reassure investors that Fortnite will not return to the App Store. Apple won’t comply with their demands now that they’ve won a lawsuit that endorses their business model. So, iOS users can rule out playing Fortnite on an iPhone or iPad again anytime soon.
This lawsuit, among other things, has ensured that Apple will not be labeled a monopoly. It’s an outcome that quashes Epic Games’ ambitions to offer itself as an alternative App Store with its payment gateway.
