Epic Games said Tuesday that Fortnite has returned to Apple $AAPL's App Store in markets worldwide, as the videogame maker's long-running legal dispute with Apple heads toward a potential U.S. Supreme Court review.
Epic says it expects regulators worldwide to reject Apple's App Store fees once a U.S. court forces the company to disclose its costs
Bloomberg / Getty Images
Epic Games said Tuesday that Fortnite has returned to Apple $AAPL's App Store in markets worldwide, as the videogame maker's long-running legal dispute with Apple heads toward a potential U.S. Supreme Court review.
"Apple knows the U.S. federal court will force it to be transparent about how it charges its App Store fees," Epic said in a statement. "Once Apple is forced to show its costs, governments around the world will not allow Apple junk fees to stand."
Epic said it is confident a favorable court outcome will prompt regulators globally to act against Apple's App Store commission structure, which can reach 30% on in-app purchases. The company said momentum is building in Japan, the E.U., and the U.K., though it accused Apple of evading those laws through warning screens, fees, and onerous requirements.
Fortnite has not returned to the Australian App Store, Epic said. An Australian court found many of Apple's developer terms unlawful, but Apple continues to enforce them. Epic said it cannot return under what it described as an illegal payment arrangement and will wait for a court order unless Apple agrees to adopt lawful payment terms in the interim.
The dispute between Epic and Apple stretches back to 2020, when Epic added external payment options to Fortnite to bypass Apple's App Store fees, leading Apple to remove the game. Apple largely prevailed in the original 2021 ruling — a court found the company was not a monopoly — but the judge required Apple to allow developers to link to outside payment options, according to TechCrunch.
Purchases routed through external payment links were still subject to a 27% commission Apple imposed on developers, barely undercutting the standard 30% rate. That fee structure drew a contempt finding from a federal district court, a determination the Ninth Circuit affirmed last December. A bid by Apple to revisit that decision before the same court was rejected this past March.
Having exhausted its avenues within the Ninth Circuit, Apple is expected to petition the Supreme Court for review, TechCrunch reported. At the Supreme Court, the company would likely contest the criteria underlying the contempt determination while also disputing whether judges have any business setting limits on what it can charge.
Epic's motion to stay drew sharp criticism from the company's spokesperson Natalie Munoz, who told TechCrunch that Apple was engaged in "another delay tactic to prevent the court from establishing significant and permanent bounds on Apple's ability to charge junk fees on third-party payments."
The game had been absent from the U.S. App Store for roughly five years before becoming available again in 2025, Reuters noted. Chinese technology giant Tencent holds a stake in Epic.
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