Following Apple's decision to pull Fortnite from its Apple Store, Epic Games announced that it will take legal action. Epic Games shared the news via the official Fortnite Twitter account:

Epic Games has filed legal papers in response to Apple, read more here: https://t.co/c4sgvxQUvb

— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) August 13, 2020

​

“Epic brings this suit to end Apple’s unfair and anti-competitive actions that Apple undertakes to unlawfully maintain its monopoly in two distinct, multibillion dollar markets: (i) the iOS App Distribution Market, and (ii) the iOS In-App Payment Processing Market(each as defined below),” the lawsuit reads. “Epic is not seeking monetary compensation from this Court for the injuries it has suffered. Nor is Epic seeking favorable treatment for itself, a single company. Instead, Epic is seeking injunctive relief to allow fair competition in these two key markets that directly affect hundreds of millions of consumers and tens of thousands, if not more, of third-party app developers.”

You can read the complaint in its entirety in the source link below.

SOURCE

UPDATE:

In response to Fortnite being taken down from the Google Play Store as well, Epic Games filed a lawsuit against against Google for antitrust violation.

SOURCE

 

[LightBeam]

Man... I agree fighting the tirany towards big ass companies that sells cancer to people.
But maybe... maybe... these kind of companies wouldn't be such cancer if their customers didn't support them in the first place.
Why create such conspiracy to prove a point?

Are they... trying to imply something? Like... if they win, they expect everyone to call them saviours or something like that?
To me it seems likely, that EPIC want's to be like:
"Look what they've done to me, they're the bad guys and I'm the good one"

https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/en-US/news/freefortnite?sessionInvalidated=true

I mean they are already heading this way, which is really disgusting imo. They are clearly saying that "Apples disagrees with you ! We believe that people should pay less but Apple do not allow developers like us to do so !! Make your voice heard with #FreeFortnite on social medias !!!"
I don't think I've ever seen a company saying such things, and Fortnite players are already taking Epic's word for it and propagate fake news about the subject just in order to make Apple look bad.

I mean I don't care about Apple reputation at all, but it seems unfair to me, Epic is just disgusting

But yeah, if Apple can really use that to their advantage to win the case ....
Honestly I would be glad lol. I'm team Apple now (despite me never ever possessed any Apple product, I just want to see Epic getting rolled)

 

[RichardTheKing]

Has Epic bothered to create more exclusivity deals, or are they done with that anti-competition crap? I haven't heard of a new one in months.
Additionally, how is Epic's vaunted roadmap, for their barebones store and launcher, holding up? Is it progressing as it should, or was it abandoned like Anthem's?

 

[MetoMeto]

The EPIC saga!

 

[LightBeam]

Has Epic bothered to create more exclusivity deals, or are they done with that anti-competition crap? I haven't heard of a new one in months.
Additionally, how is Epic's vaunted roadmap, for their barebones store and launcher, holding up? Is it progressing as it should, or was it abandoned like Anthem's?

It was abandoned, they couldn't keep up with it lol

 

[VartioArtel]

Yeah that's true, I didn't even consider that. Besides the legal implications, it's also childish as can be, not to mention an insult to the source material. "Large Corporation A, please save us from the grip of Large Corporation B!"

Man... I agree fighting the tirany towards big ass companies that sells cancer to people.
But maybe... maybe... these kind of companies wouldn't be such cancer if their customers didn't support them in the first place.
Why create such conspiracy to prove a point?

Are they... trying to imply something? Like... if they win, they expect everyone to call them saviours or something like that?
To me it seems likely, that EPIC want's to be like:
"Look what they've done to me, they're the bad guys and I'm the good one"

It's funny, recently I watched a video.

"Fascists will attempt to make you believe they're the good guys, so once they take over, you're gladly eating out of the palm of their hand with a smile."

Both of these groups could be viewed almost fascist with how they approach business - strict authoritarian systems and generally corrupt leaderships that expect everything to go their way.

Now I don't mean this as a political commentary about society as much as a reference to what fascism is by definition:
"Fascism (/ˈfæʃɪzəm/) is a form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, as well as strong regimentation of society and of the economy which came to prominence in early 20th-century Europe."

Now, Epic attempts to suppress competition by exclusivity deals - anyone remember the Shenmue 3 debocle? (Edit: To clarify/respond to an earlier post: no, they very much still do it, but nowhere as aggressively and it's become so standard it would be like calling Water Wet. It's a frickin' given. Total War: Troy I believe is the latest example). (Edit 2: For those saying 'it's just business, not them being controlling', let's not forget they made offers to some indies saying 'exclusive with us, or don't get on our platform at all'.)

Apple - please we don't even need to argue this, every bit of them suppresses competition from their Right-To-Repair mentality up to their very management of all their services really. And as we see with Epic - they were quick to punish Epic without even *attempting* to talk to them (presuming there weren't talks before). (This don't even exclude that their OSes are basically incompatible with Windows programs, and their programs incompatible with Windows OS. Which again - authoritarian and suppression of opposition. Rather than welcome opposition they try to limit it).

Both want control over us, the consumer. And they are damn heavy on trying to suppress competition the best they can.

Do not, under any circumstances, turn this into a commentary of the current political landscape, I swear to god I am just referencing how the two are reminding me of a video quote.
-------------------------
That aside, both of these companies honestly need to be knocked down a serious peg or 15.

 

[JuanMena]

I'm glad I'm not the only one seeing this whole situation as I understood it.

Both companies (EPIC and APPLE) can go fuck themselves, and why not... Microsoft too!

 

[RichardTheKing]

Apple vs Epic...I personally don't care about either one, honestly. Epic just needs to screw off and collapse, what with their garbage "game", barebones launcher, and history of shady exclusivity deals.

Apple, though...the only thing of theirs I really like is the macOS, uh, OS. Find it much less cluttered and obtuse than Windows, personally, and more visually appealing in terms of GUI. Not only does Finder, for example, have native tab support (unlike File Explorer - come on, Microsoft, this is a basic QoL improvement!), but the desktop also groups files under file type, greatly reducing desktop clutter (and load times, too). I find it much easier to find stuff using Finder, too. Having the Bin always available on the right end of the Dock is handy, as is separating open programs (Dock) from the clock, toolbar, and program menus (Taskbar).

Otherwise, Apple is just...ugh. iOS is locked down tight, not allowing the level of customisation Android permits, and their business practices are pure trash.

 

[sarkwalvein]

Even if Satan itself sued apple I would side against apple... so, go Epic!

 

[VartioArtel]

I'm glad I'm not the only one seeing this whole situation as I understood it.

Both companies (EPIC and APPLE) can go fuck themselves, and why not... Microsoft too!

Microsoft may be greedy, but from at least my POV, ignorant as it is on *this* matter, they aren't anywhere near Crapple or Epic Lames. Microsoft's beginning to let many of their console games go PC, and from what I can tell they're very open to competition on almost every level. They may have exclusive games like Epic, but they're a First Party which does give an argument to the situation, on top of being generally the fact that when their games do go multi-platform, they aren't segregating their own audience to just one platform. PSO2 for example might be a Microsoft Store exclusive, but it is going to Steam too as I understand.

I used to hate Microsoft, but in recent years it seems they've begun getting their shit together. Apple? Hahaha... no.

 

[Xzi]

It's funny, recently I watched a video.

"Fascists will attempt to make you believe they're the good guys, so once they take over, you're gladly eating out of the palm of their hand with a smile."

Both of these groups could be viewed almost fascist with how they approach business - strict authoritarian systems and generally corrupt leaderships that expect everything to go their way.

Now I don't mean this as a political commentary about society as much as a reference to what fascism is by definition:
"Fascism (/ˈfæʃɪzəm/) is a form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, as well as strong regimentation of society and of the economy which came to prominence in early 20th-century Europe."

Now, Epic attempts to suppress competition by exclusivity deals - anyone remember the Shenmue 3 debocle?

Apple - please we don't even need to argue this, every bit of them suppresses competition from their Right-To-Repair mentality up to their very management of all their services really. And as we see with Epic - they were quick to punish Epic without even *attempting* to talk to them (presuming there weren't talks before). (This don't even exclude that their OSes are basically incompatible with Windows programs, and their programs incompatible with Windows OS. Which again - authoritarian and suppression of opposition. Rather than welcome opposition they try to limit it).

Both want control over us, the consumer. And they are damn heavy on trying to suppress competition the best they can.

Do not, under any circumstances, turn this into a commentary of the current political landscape, I swear to god I am just referencing how the two are reminding me of a video quote.
-------------------------
That aside, both of these companies honestly need to be knocked down a serious peg or 15.

The source material being referenced in Epic's little video segment is the movie version of Orwell's "1984," which itself is a commentary on the rise of fascism. So you're spot on with the analysis here, giving either corporation complete control over a segment of the population would result in "re-education" camps being established in record time.

 

[VartioArtel]

The source material being referenced in Epic's little video segment is the movie version of Orwell's "1984," which itself is a commentary on the rise of fascism. So you're spot on with the analysis here, giving either corporation complete control over a segment of the population would result in "re-education" camps being established in record time.

I knew the title was a bit too on the nose but I didn't expect it to be THAT on the nose...

 

[JuanMena]

Microsoft may be greedy, but from at least my POV, ignorant as it is on *this* matter, they aren't anywhere near Crapple or Epic Lames. Microsoft's beginning to let many of their console games go PC, and from what I can tell they're very open to competition on almost every level. They may have exclusive games like Epic, but they're a First Party which does give an argument to the situation, on top of being generally the fact that when their games do go multi-platform, they aren't segregating their own audience to just one platform. PSO2 for example might be a Microsoft Store exclusive, but it is going to Steam too as I understand.

I used to hate Microsoft, but in recent years it seems they've begun getting their shit together. Apple? Hahaha... no.

I blame the users / consumers of Apple Products.

 

[DarkCoffe64]

,,,remember when it was just, like, "Mario vs Sonic" or "Pokèmon vs Digimon" or other stuff of the sort?
Sigh

 

[VartioArtel]

I blame the users / consumers of Apple Products.

Definitely don't help with convincing Apple their ways are wrong.

 

[Paulsar99]

One of my earliest phone was the iphone and got fed up with it because everything about it was too constrictive. I still have to jailbreak the damn thing first before I can actually feel that I own the product. Went android and loving it, no reason to go back to this expensive crap and their garbage practices.

 

[ZeroFX]

Tim of Epic vs Tim of Apple. who will win?

hopefully the one that arent chinese owned

 

[Gon Freecss]

https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/en-US/news/freefortnite?sessionInvalidated=true

I mean they are already heading this way, which is really disgusting imo. They are clearly saying that "Apples disagrees with you ! We believe that people should pay less but Apple do not allow developers like us to do so !! Make your voice heard with #FreeFortnite on social medias !!!"
I don't think I've ever seen a company saying such things, and Fortnite players are already taking Epic's word for it and propagate fake news about the subject just in order to make Apple look bad.

I mean I don't care about Apple reputation at all, but it seems unfair to me, Epic is just disgusting

But yeah, if Apple can really use that to their advantage to win the case ....
Honestly I would be glad lol. I'm team Apple now (despite me never ever possessed any Apple product, I just want to see Epic getting rolled)

Smells like chinese communist party tricks at play. #TeamApple here... or should I say #TimApple? *giggles*

 

[Deleted User]

I never had any apple product and I never buy any apple product even if I have money for that.
And I'm still alive.

 

[VartioArtel]

Here's my honest thoughts on this case excluding what I posted earlier:

A company is allowed to NOT host their IP on an apple device. Apple is likewise allowed to require a 'hosting fee', disgusting as it is.

The problem is the people buying into EITHER of their crap.

There is no 'anti-trust' with what Apple's doing. They are not stopping companies from hosting on an Android Phone, they are not stopping them from hosting on Windows, etc, in this case. Epic chose to produce a copy of their game for Apple. They agreed to Apple's terms and services.

Realistically, regardless how scummy Apple is, they are legally within their rights. They set the rules, and now Epic don't want to play by them.

This is not to say Epic's not being scummy either. They are expecting special treatment. They got denied that special treatment and got punished as per the TOS.

Ultimately: I view this as an open-shut case in Apple's favor.

If people want Apple to lose, then do the world a frickin' favor and stop buying their phones and their computers, accessories, dongles, dingles, and snorkles.

Begging Apple to lose this case would overthrow the established laws of this country as to contract laws (in this case, the ToS for using the Apple Store platform) and be an exercise in just turning this country inside out more than it's already becoming were apple to lose. The only sane solution will be Apples winning. As I said last line: the only way apple loses, is if people stop buying Apple services/items and also stops using Apple's "Official Repair services".

Nothing Apple has done is explicitly illegal. Scummy yes, but scummy don't really have punishments unless they're anti-competitive, anti-consumer to extremes, etc. Anti-Right-to-Repair is an extreme case of anti-consumer as it's also anti-competitive, for example. That is something Apple is VERY LIKELY to lose on, ideally. But until the law changes, nothing they do is explicitly illegal that we know of.

 

[Xzi]

hopefully the one that arent chinese owned

Hate to burst your bubble, but Apple is heavily-reliant on Chinese manufacturing to produce their hardware, which these days more likely than not means profiting from Uighur slave labor as well. So while Apple isn't 40% owned by Tencent like Epic is, China's government still wins no matter who loses in this particular lawsuit.