Apple Seeks Damages From Epic In Newest Court Filing

In Apple's September 8 court filing, the tech company is now seeking damages from Epic over breach of contract. "Although Epic portrays itself as a modern corporate Robin Hood, in reality it is a multi-billion dollar enterprise that simply wants to pay nothing for the tremendous value it derives from the App store," the company stated in the filing.

In addition to wanting Epic's external payment system permanently stopped and removed, Apple wants all earnings and profits generated as a result of Epic making it possible for players to bypass the App store's payment system. Apple also claimed that it has been "injured in its business and has suffered damages, loss of goodwill and product image, and other harm."

Apple's filing is in response to Epic's preliminary injunction against Apple to get Fortnite back on the App store. Epic's Apple developer account was terminated on August 28, and prior to that, Epic's appeal for a restraining order was partially denied. The judge ruled that Apple will not be forced to put Fortnite back in stores, but also that Apple cannot touch Epic's Unreal Engine, which is used by many other developers.

After Apple terminated Epic's development account, the company told GameSpot, "We are disappointed that we have had to terminate the Epic Games account on the App Store. We have worked with the team at Epic Games for many years on their launches and releases. The court recommended that Epic comply with the App Store guidelines while their case moves forward, guidelines they’ve followed for the past decade until they created this situation. Epic has refused. Instead they repeatedly submit Fortnite updates designed to violate the guidelines of the App Store. This is not fair to all other developers on the App Store and is putting customers in the middle of their fight. We hope that we can work together again in the future, but unfortunately that is not possible today."

Both Apple and Epic are not backing down, and it's likely that Fortnite will not be on an iOS device anytime soon. You can read GameSpot's full explanation on what is exactly going on in Apple and Epic's lawsuit.