CALIFORNIA (US) – Popular video game “Fortnite” was removed from the app stores of Apple and Google Apple on Thursday for flouting the companies’ in-app payment guidelines. This made its developer Epic Games file federal antitrust lawsuits.
A direct payment option which appeared on the app on Thursday was cited by Apple and Google as the violation. In the lawsuit, Epic did not seek compensation. Instead, it sought an end to many of the firms’ practices related to app stores.
“Apple has become what it once railed against: the behemoth seeking to control markets, block competition, and stifle innovation. Apple is bigger, more powerful, more entrenched, and more pernicious than the monopolists of yesteryear,” Epic mentioned in the lawsuit filed in California.
It also took up cudgels against Apple on social media using the hashtag #FreeFortnite, urging players to seek refunds from Apple if they are prevented from accessing the game.
Parodying an old Apple television ad, which became viral, a female Fortnite fighter hurls a unicorn-shaped club to smash a screen on which an Apple-headed character speaks of “the anniversary of the platform unification directives.”
For most subscriptions and payments made inside applications, Apple gets a cut of between 15% and 30%. But there are exceptions for firms that already have a credit card on file for iPhone customers if they also offer an in-app payment that would benefit Apple.
Apple’s statement said Epic launched the payment feature with the “express intent of violating the App Store guidelines”.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field
