Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store and Epic immediately sues Apple for anti-competitive practices

After Epic Games released an update for Fortnite Battle Royale in which allowed players to choose where to make their payments and basically being able to skip the 30% commission required by Apple when making in-app payments, Apple removed Battle Royale from the App Store.

And now Epic Games announced that it has taken legal action against Apple to end anti-competitive restrictions the company has on smartphone app stores.

In fact, Epic has developed its own in-app payment system which bypasses Apple's standard 30% fee that it launched Thursday. This update drastically reduces prices with discounts of up to 20%, and also introduces discounts on all expenses with real money.

Epic published a blog post yesterday in which explains direct payment at Epic. Therefore, the company deals a severe blow to Apple and Google, but also to other application stores.

Apart from App Store and Play Store, these discounts are also valid for purchases on other platforms, like PC, Mac, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch.

"This is not an offer ... these are new reduced prices available at any time!" We are delighted to pass on these savings to you and will continue to seek other ways to provide value to all Fortnite players, ”Epic wrote on its official website. This further agitates the enmity between Apple and the publisher of the game.

Similarly, this approach to Epic comes at a particularly delicate time for Apple, since the iPhone manufacturer faces competition concerns regarding the operation of the App Store and the rules it imposes on certain developers.

The CEO of the company, Tim Cook, had also been called to testify before the US Congress late last month. However, this did not worry the company too much, as it did not hesitate for a moment to ban Battle Royal, which was trying to take advantage of its advantages.

From then on, things went very fast. After the ban, Apple issued a statement to explain it. "

Today, Epic Games has made the unfortunate decision to violate the App Store guidelines that apply equally to all developers and are designed to make the store safe for our users.

As a result, their Fortnite app has been removed from the store, ”he said. Apple has said it is ready to work with Epic to "resolve these violations," but does not intend to find a "special fix" with it.

Meanwhile Epic announced a series of carefully calculated reactions, including an antitrust lawsuit destined to end the monopoly of which the Apple App Store is already accused not only by them but also by many other developers and a protest video streamed on YouTube and within Fortnite.

Video mocks iPhone maker's iconic "1984" ad and call gaming fans to #FreeFortnite in support of their fight against Apple. The latter said that Epic has freely agreed to the App Store's terms and guidelines for a decade and that these business interests should not now lead him to push for a special deal.

For its part, Google has also taken similar action and removed the game from the Play Store.

Android users can still download Fortnite, however, using Epic's own app launcher, which it distributes independently via any mobile web browser.

“If Fortnite is still available on Android, we can no longer make it on Play because it violates our policies. However, we are happy to continue our discussions with Epic and bring Fortnite back to Play, ”said a Google spokesperson.

For now, those who have already downloaded Fortnite on iOS can still play it, only new downloads are disabled because Apple has removed the game from its store. Furthermore, in this case it would still be possible to use the payment system in the application.