Apple seeks damages from Epic Games for breach of contract

Apple is going on the offensive and seeking damages from Epic Games for allegedly breaching its contract with the iOS App Store. In a wide-ranging motion filed on Tuesday afternoon, Apple defends itself against Epic's legal charges while accusing the Fortnite maker of outright theft.

The filing reads, "Epic's flagrant disregard for its contractual commitments and other misconduct has caused significant harm to Apple. Left unchecked, Epic's conduct threatens the very existence of the iOS ecosystem and its tremendous value to consumers."

Apple also writes, "Although Epic portrays itself as a modern corporate Robin Hood, in reality, it is a multi-billion dollar enterprise that simply wants to pay nothing for the tremendous value it derives from the App Store." 

That Epic's addition of direct payments into Fornite was a "Trojan Horse" and amounted to "little more than theft." Through its "hotfix" update, Epic deliberately hid from the usual App Store review process, and it "sought to enjoy all of the benefits of Apple's iOS platform and related services while [lining] Epic's pockets at Apple's expense."

The developer agreed to Apple's contractual terms to access iOS development since 2008, and that Epic has earned over US$600 million from the App Store. Even if it doesn't accept the deal anymore, Apple writes, it "does not provide cover for Epic to breach binding contracts, dupe a long-time business partner, pocket commissions that rightfully belong to Apple, and then ask this Court to take a judicial sledgehammer to one of the 21st Century's most innovative business platforms simply because it does not maximize Epic's revenues."

Apple justifies the 30 percent cut it gets as reflecting "the immense value of the App Store, which is more than the sum of its parts and includes Apple's technology, tools, software for app development and testing, marketing efforts, platinum-level customer service, and distribution of developers' apps and digital content." 

The tech giant denies Epic's claims that it is a monopolist. Apple says that "competition both inside and outside the App Store is fierce at every level: for devices, platforms, and individual apps." And it requires all iOS purchases to go through its infrastructure to "ensure that iOS apps meet Apple's high standards for privacy, security, content, and quality," which it claims Epic "couldn't be entrusted with this type of responsibility."

Apple cited security vulnerabilities in an independently distributed Android version from 2018 as evidence of why iOS protections are needed.

Aside from compensatory and punitive damages related to a breach of contract and other violations, Apple seeks an injunction that stops Epic from using its external payment processing mechanism in extant copies of Fortnite on iOS and future apps.

Source: The Verge + Ars Technica