Epic CEO says company paid Apple $6 million as ordered

Epic Games has paid Apple $6 million USD (roughly $7.6 million CAD) for violating the iPhone maker’s App Store guidelines.

The payment follows last week’s ruling in the Epic v. Apple lawsuit, which was largely a loss for Epic. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers handed down the ruling on September 10th — it determined that Apple’s App Store was not a monopoly but that the company had engaged in some anti-competitive practices. Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Apple would need to allow other forms of in-app purchases.

Beyond that, Epic lost on every other count. Moreover, the judge ruled Epic would need to pay Apple 30 percent of the $12.1 million USD it earned between August and October 2020 plus 30 percent of any revenue earned between November 2020 and today.

As for why Epic was on the hook to pay Apple, it all traces back to the beginning of the lawsuit. In August 2020, Epic added its own payment method to Fortnite. That led Apple to boot the game off the App Store — however, those who already had it installed could still play (eventually, an update made the app unusable). During that time, the game still made money, and that’s why Epic was on the hook to pay Apple.

Epic has paid Apple $6,000,000 as ordered by the court. pic.twitter.com/trulCfjE9S

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) September 13, 2021

Epic, obviously, isn’t a fan of the ruling. The company has already announced plans to appeal, and CEO Tim Sweeney previously tweeted that Fortnite will return to the App Store only when it can “offer in-app payment in fair competition with Apple in-app payment.” The tweet seems to ignore the fact that it’s up to Apple when (and if) Fortnite can return to the App Store.

Sweeney also tweeted confirmation that Epic paid Apple the $6 million with a somewhat cringey joke: the tweet included a picture of the Apple Pay logo.

Source: @TimSweeneyEpic Via: MacRumors