Apple has won a reprieve in the Apple vs. Epic Games lawsuit after a judge granted a stay on orders that the App Store implement changes to allow third-party payments.
As you may know by now, a major legal battle kicked off when Epic Games introduced the "Epic Direct Payment" system into Fortnite mobile. That was a big no-no per the TOS for the Apple App Store and Google Play and the game was subsequently removed from the App Store and then removed from Google Play a few hours later.
Epic Games has been engaged in several legal battles over the last year and change in the United States and elsewhere, winning victories in some areas and losing in others. One of its biggest victories, however, has just been put on hold by a judge.
Breaking: Apple wins delay of Epic antitrust win. Can delay allowing links in apps to outside payment options pic.twitter.com/WwDY34o5KW
— Josh Sisco (@joshua_sisco) December 8, 2021
(Header Image credit: Josh Sisco on Twitter.)
Apple vs. Epic Games Lawsuit: The App Store is Safe For Now, Pending Appeal
As The Information's Josh Sisco reports (via ResetEra), a judge has granted a stay for an order that required Apple to implement third-party payment systems on the App Store pending an appeal. A judge had previously denied a stay and given Apple a deadline of December 9, 2021.
"Apple has demonstrated, at minimum, that its appeal raises serious questions on the merits of the district court's determination that Epic Games, Inc. failed to show Apple's conduct violated any antitrust laws but did show that the same conduct violated California's Unfair Competition law."
To put it into layman's terms: a previous ruling said that Apple had been violating antitrust laws and had to let third-party payment processors circumvent Apple's built-in payment system. This new order says that there are still some things that can be argued on the matter, and so the December 9th deadline to implement third-party payments has been put on hold in order to allow Apple to appeal the decision.
This is just another step in the long legal battle between the two companies. For now, the only thing we can be certain of is that it will probably be a long time before you can play Fortnite on iOS again.
Who do you think will ultimately win the Apple vs. Epic Games lawsuit? Do you think Apple and Google should allow third-party payment systems to bypass their built-in payment systems (and their 30% cut)? Let us know in the comments below!