Apple Gets $6M From 'Fortnite' Maker Over Flouting Of App Store Rules

Apple Inc AAPL has been paid $6 million by “Fortnite” maker Epic Games, as per the latter’s CEO Tom Sweeney. 

What Happened: Sweeney posted the announcement on Twitter on Monday complete with an Apple Pay logo in an apparent dig at the iPhone maker.

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

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) September 13, 2021

In a ruling on Sept. 10, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers of the Northern District Court of California permanently restrained and enjoined the Tim Cook-led tech giant from prohibiting developers from including in their apps and their metadata buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms.

On Monday, Sweeney also seemingly made a reference to that outcome in the antitrust trial brought about by Epic over Apple’s App Store policies particularly the 30% cut the latter charged on in-app payments.

hey siri what is a button pic.twitter.com/gLKb5gE2Ck

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) September 12, 2021

Why It Matters: However, the ruling held that “Epic Games failed in its burden to demonstrate Apple is an illegal monopolist,” as per a prior report.

See Also: Apple To Forego App Store Cut, Letting Many Like Netflix, Spotify Process Payments Outside Of Its Systems

On Monday, television host Jim Cramer noted that “Apple won on almost everything” in the lawsuit while Epic turned out to be the loser.

This fact seemed to have been acknowledged by Sweeny on Twitter who said he was “determined to fight on until there is genuine developer and consumer freedom in software, and fair competition in each mobile platform software component.”

Today: Lost a court case, climbed a mountain, read hundreds of pages of legal papers, wrote some code. Just as determined as ever to fight on until there is genuine developer and consumer freedom in software, and fair competition in each mobile platform software component. pic.twitter.com/5PWD6va6mz

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) September 11, 2021

Epic is planning to appeal the ruling, as per a Reuters report. Should the game maker prevail, it is possible that the $6 million might be recouped by it, as per an Apple Insider report.

Price Action: On Monday, Apple shares closed nearly 0.4% higher at $149.55 in the regular session.

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