The proceedings can take up to five years.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said that Apple refused to restore the Epic developer account until the court hears the appeal filed by the creators of Fortnite themselves.
Apple lied. Apple has been telling the world, the court and the press for a year that it ” welcomes Epic back to the App Store if they agree to play by the same rules as everyone else.” Epic agreed, and now Apple has not given up on another abuse of its monopoly power over a billion users.
Sweeney posted a letter on Twitter dated September 21, in which Apple representatives reported that the company had decided not to restore the Epic developer account and ignore further requests from the company.
The report notes that Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who considered the case between the companies, ruled that Apple has every right to remove any accounts associated with Epic from the App Store at its discretion.
The head of Epic also wondered who Apple would block with such a policy as follows: “If Apple now blacklists companies because of their statements, what will it lead to? To ban Spotify? The New York Times? Fortnite should not be blocked for challenging an agreement with terms that have been declared illegal by a court. We will fight.”
The decision in the case of Epic and Apple was made on September 10. The court sided with Apple on all issues except one — it was forbidden to limit developers to payments through the App Store.
A few days later, Epic filed an appeal to the court in the case against Apple.