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Apple likens Fortnite creator to a shoplifter in court filing

21 August 2020
 Dan Ackermann

Apple on Friday urged a court not to give Epic Games a reprieve from being kicked out of iOS, saying the firm acted akin to a shoplifter by inserting its own payment system into Fortnite.

Why it matters: The battle between Apple and Epic is a high-stakes one, with Apple risking attracting even more antitrust scrutiny and Epic potentially not only seeing Fortnite permanently banned from the App Store, but also left unable to update its Unreal gaming engine.

Details: In Friday's filing, Apple urged a federal district court in San Francisco to deny Epic's request for a temporary restraining order, insisting the “emergency” is entirely of Epic’s own making and saying restraining orders "exist to remedy irreparable harm, not easily reparable self-inflicted wounds,"

  • "If developers can avoid the digital checkout, it is the same as if a customer leaves an Apple retail store without paying for shoplifted product: Apple does not get paid," Apple said in the filing.

Flashback: Earlier this month, Epic added its own in-app payment system to Fortnite for both iOS and Android. The same day, Apple and Google both removed the game from their app stores and Epic filed suit against both companies.

  • With Android, Epic continues to make Fortnite available directly. That's not an option with Apple, which only allows iOS apps to be downloaded via its App Store.
  • Epic later filed for a restraining order, saying that Apple informed it that it could lose developer access by the end of the month.

The new court papers show that Epic was trying to alter its arrangement with Apple for months.

  • According to Apple, Epic emailed the company on June 30 seeking to allow its own Epic Games Store app as a way for iOS users to install the company's games directly, bypassing Apple's payment system.

What they're saying: "Over the last several months, Epic has demanded that Apple make various changes to Epic’s rights and obligations under its contracts that would be destructive to Apple’s basic business model.," Apple fellow Phil Schiller said in a declaration accompanying Friday's filing.

  • "When Apple refused to fundamentally alter the way it does business to appease Epic, Epic resorted to sudden, unilateral action that blatantly breached its contracts with Apple, and simultaneously filed this lawsuit, which seeks to justify its deliberate breaches after the fact."

Between the lines: Apple says Epic has no antitrust case against it because it can’t possibly monopolize the mobile app market, given competition from Google. (Epic maintains that Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store are in fact discrete markets, each a monopoly in its own right.)

  • Apple says its policies are similar not only to those used by Google, Amazon and Microsoft for their platforms, but also to other game marketplaces such as Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo and Steam.

What's next: A hearing on Epic's request for a restraining order is scheduled for Monday at 3 p.m. PT.

Go deeper:

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.