Apple vs Epic Games: Tech giant responds to allegations, says no exceptions for Fortnite
The Cupertino-based tech giant has responded to the allegations made by the developers of popular battle royale game Fortnite, saying that there will be no policy exceptions for the game, as the game developers were looking for ways to bypass the Apple App Store payments system and avoid the cut of each transaction that has to be shared with Apple.
The ongoing battle between Apple and Epic Games is getting worse. The Cupertino-based tech giant has responded to the allegations made by the developers of popular battle royale game Fortnite, saying that there will be no policy exceptions for the game, as the game developers were looking for ways to bypass the Apple App Store payments system and avoid the cut of each transaction that has to be shared with Apple.
Epic Games sneaked an update for the game and implemented their own in-app payment system which bypassed the App Store for in-app purchases and subscriptions, something that Apple has made very clear in the past, that they will not allow. Epic Games had also quickly filed legal complaints against Apple and Google, after the latter also kicked Fortnite off the Play Store for Android devices.
Apple and Google take a 30% share of the transactions, including in-app purchases, done via their respective application store platforms.
Epic has said that Apple is threatening to terminate its developer account by August 28 which would cut the company off from iOS and macOS development tools.
"Upon further review of the activity associated with your Apple Developer Program membership, we have identified several violations of the Apple Developer Program License Agreement. Therefore, your Apple Developer Program account will be terminated if the violations set forth below are not cured within 14 days," Apple said in a letter to Epic, which is also included in the court filing.
According to Epic Games, Apple has sent the notice about the account termination after the antitrust feud between the two companies exploded.
"Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store and has informed Epic that on Friday, August 28 Apple will terminate all our developer accounts and cut Epic off from iOS and Mac development tools. We are asking the court to stop this retaliation," the company tweeted on Monday.
According to Apple, Epic Games has grown into a multi-billion dollar business that reached millions of iOS customers around the world.
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