The injunction brief says that more than 116 million gamers have played Fortnite on iOS, making it the game’s biggest platform, larger than its player base on Nintendo Switch, Xbox, PlayStation, PC or Android.
In a Saturday statement to CNN Business, Epic said, “today we ask the Court to stop Apple from retaliating against Epic for daring to challenge Apple’s misconduct while our antitrust case proceeds.”
In claiming that Apple monopolizes the distribution and purchase of iOS apps, Epic Games is “going to have to convince the judge that those are markets to begin with,” John Bergmayer, legal director of consumer rights group Public Knowledge, told CNN Business.
On Saturday, Apple referred CNN Business to its previous statement, saying, “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.”
The statement continued: “We hope that we can work together again in the future, but unfortunately that is not possible today.”
That decision meant iOS gamers with Fortnite downloaded to their phones aren’t able to access the game’s latest updates that were released later in August.
While Apple has maintained that its policies are industry standard and meant to ensure a consistent and secure app experience for consumers, critics say Apple’s 30% fee and requirements that all in-app payments be run through Apple’s payment channels chill competition.
“I think (Epic winning the lawsuits) would be pretty good for the markets overall,” said Mitch Stoltz, senior staff attorney of the non-profit digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation. “You’d see more experimentation, you’d see more business models. You’d see more innovation.”