Tim Sweeney on the future of Fortnite after another win over Apple
Shortly after appeals court judges ruled against Apple’s contempt appeal in years-long antitrust litigation against the makers of Fortnite, I had the opportunity to speak to Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney in an interview. According to Sweeney, today’s decision “completely shuts down” Apple’s App Store rules that allow it to collect “unwanted fees.”
The three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals largely upheld an April ruling that Apple failed to comply with Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’ 2021 order allowing app developers to connect to external payment options, which Sweeney said “…is really great for all developers.”
Perhaps the most notable part of the appeals court’s ruling is that the panel asks Gonzalez Rogers to consider ways Apple could charge developers reasonable fees for purchases made in apps that use external payment links. In his April ruling, Gonzalez Rogers blocked Apple from taking any fees related to external payments due to decisions such as imposing a 27% fee on external payments and requiring developers to establish their payment links in plain text.
But the appeals court said Apple “should” be able to charge fees based on “those costs that are genuinely and reasonably necessary for its coordination of external links for linked purchases, but no more” and that Apple is “entitled to certain compensation for the use of its intellectual property that is directly used to enable Epic and others to make linked purchases.”
“If you want an app to be reviewed with custom links, there are maybe several hundred dollars in fees associated with it every time you submit an app, which is totally reasonable because real people at Apple do these things and Apple pays for them, and we should contribute to that,” Sweeney said. But he says the decision “ends, I think, completely, forever, Apple’s theory that they should be able to charge arbitrary junk fees for access.”
With these two areas that Apple would be allowed to charge for, Sweeney says, “I can’t imagine any justification for a percentage of developers’ revenue being assessed here.” »
A few weeks after the April judgment, Fortnite has returned to the US App Store – almost five years after Apple launched it when Epic introduced its own in-app purchasing system to the App Store. Fortnite. And there are efforts globally to force Apple to allow third-party app stores on iOS, like the Digital Markets Act in Europe, which is why you can get Fortnite from the mobile Epic Games Store in this region.
“Until now, Apple has adopted the strategy of collecting unwanted fees in all territories until they are forced by law enforcement or regulators to stop,” says Sweeney. “I don’t know if they’re going to keep doing this until they’ve lost every battle around the world, or if they’re going to harmonize their global policies at some point. I certainly hope that Apple will try, at some point, to achieve a soft landing and have a single global policy that works for everyone.”
Sweeney expects the Ninth Circuit’s opinion will unblock “many” regulatory efforts around the world. “Why on earth would any self-respecting country allow Apple to charge fees that the US court has ruled are illegal in the US?” he said.
The decision wasn’t the only big news for Epic and Fortnite on mobile today: The game also returned to Google Play in the US after being similarly booted by Google when Epic added the in-app payment system. Fortnite. Epic and Google announced last month that they had agreed to settle their lawsuit, and although both parties are still seeking court approval for their settlement, it resolves their disputes worldwide.
“I have been very impressed with the new generation of Android leaders,” says Sweeney. “They’ve turned over a new leaf here.”
