What you need to know
- Epic Games has paid Apple $6 million.
- The payment was ordered by the judge who found that Epic breached its contract with Apple.
- The company has already filed an appeal.
Epic has just cut a $6,000,000 check to Apple.
While it's unclear if the payment came in the form of the check, Epic CEO Tim Sweeny took to Twitter to announce that Epic Games has, in fact, paid Apple $6 million as part of the results of the Epic v. Apple trial.
Epic has paid Apple $6,000,000 as ordered by the court. pic.twitter.com/trulCfjE9SEpic has paid Apple $6,000,000 as ordered by the court. pic.twitter.com/trulCfjE9S— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) September 13, 2021September 13, 2021
The payment was ordered by the judge who found that Epic's actions that kicked off the entire lawsuit were a breach of contract with Apple. The fued began when Epic created a hotfix to the Fortnite iOS app that began to offer in-app purchases through Epic's own payment processing system rather than Apple's. This was a breach of contract according to the App Store rules.
In response, Apple kicked Fortnite off of the App Store. The judge ordered that Epic still owed Apple the commission that it would have earned had Epic's customers paid through Apple's in-app payment system. That amount turned out to be $6 million.
The Epc v. Apple trial, outside of Apple being required to allow developers to point users to purchase opportunites outside of their app, was a major win for Apple. The judge said that Epic did not provide enough evidence to prove that Apple operated as a monopoly with the App Store. While the judge did not find a justification for Apple's 30% commission for in-app payments, it did not push Apple to change the current fees.
Epic already announced earlier today that it has filed an appeal that seeks to change the results of the lawsuit.
