Epic's Tim Sweeney pledges more legal action as US Supreme Court rejects Apple lawsuit appeals

eurogamer.net:

Epic Games boss Tim Sweeney has vowed more legal action against Apple, just days after the US Supreme Court dismissed both parties' further attempts to appeal a 2021 California court ruling on the Epic vs. Apple antitrust lawsuit.

Epic initially launched court proceedings against Apple back in August 2020, after the company revoked Epic's Fortnite developer account, preventing the game from being distributed on its devices. Apple made the move after Epic deliberately circumvented contractually mandated App Store payment mechanisms within its Fortnite iOS app, which would have allowed it to avoid Apple's 30 percent platform fees.

A decision on Epic's lawsuit came in September 2021, when Judge Gonzalez-Rogers ruled against Epic in nine of its 10 claims, determining the company had failed to prove Apple held a monopoly as defined by antitrust laws. Gonzalez-Rogers did, however, side with Epic in one matter, ruling Apple could not block developers from linking out to alternative payment methods from within their apps — a practice known as «anti-steering» — as that would constitute «anti-competitive conduct» under state law.

Since then, Apple and Epic have been embroiled in appeals, neither party happy with Gonzalez-Rogers' decision; but after the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled to uphold the lower court's 2021 verdict last April, Epic and Apple both petitioned the US Supreme Court to overthrow the decision — and those requests have now been rejected.

As reported by Reuters, the Supreme Court declined to hear Apple's appeal against California's anti-steering decision, while also choosing to dismiss Epic's challenge against the ruling that Apple's policies did not violate federal antitrust laws. No reason for the decision was given.

Following, the Supreme Court decision Epic's Tim Sweeney took to social media to declare, «The court battle to open iOS to competing stores and payments is lost in the United States», calling it a «sad outcome for all developers».