After a California judge ruled that Apple is violating her 2021 anti-steering injunction in the legal battle with Epic Games, the company’s CEO, Tim Sweeney, said that Fortnite will return to the US App Store next week. He even offered a “peace proposal” to reinstate Fortnite worldwide.
Sweeney said, “We will return Fortnite to the US iOS App Store next week. Epic puts forth a peace proposal: If Apple extends the court’s friction-free, Apple-tax-free framework worldwide, we’ll return Fortnite to the App Store worldwide and drop current and future litigation on the topic.”
That said, Apple would have to offer the changes recently announced by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers, including:
- Apple can’t prevent developers from adding links or buttons that direct customers to purchases outside the App Store
- The company can’t collect any fee or commission for purchases made outside an app, and Apple can’t track, audit, or monitor consumer activity outside the App Store
- Apple can’t control how developers communicate with its customers when purchasing outside the App Store
- Apple can’t make “scare screens” to prevent users from purchasing outside the App Store
With these changes, Epic might finally get what it always wanted from the beginning: Offering Fortnite in-app purchases without paying fees for Apple. These major changes will also benefit several other players, including Netflix and Spotify.
While Apple said in a statement that it will comply with the ruling, it also plans to appeal the decision, which means it might start complying with these changes, and then end them depending on the judge’s new decision.
In the past few years, Apple has made several changes to the App Store and how developers can offer subscriptions and in-app payments. However, only with this new ruling the company will have to make fundamental changes to how the App Store work.
