Fortnite-developer Epic Games sues Apple

In a surprise move last Thursday, Apple banned Fortnite from its App Store after Epic Games – the game’s maker – introduced its own payment system to make in-app purchases instead of relying on Apple’s system under which it gets 30 per cent of all purchases.

The reason for this is that Epic Games, led by Tim Sweeney, believes that Apple gets a very large percentage of purchases that exceed one billion dollars annually within Fortnite. You can see all the details about the game here.

But Epic Games did not standby idly in the face of the Fortnite ban and quickly responded by filing a lawsuit against Apple’s recent decision.

The purpose of the lawsuit, as stated in it, is not to obtain material compensation for Apple’s unfair decision.

Epic Games instead wants to force Apple to amend the app store policies to allow fair competition, and considers that Apple’s practices are monopolistic.

Epic wants this lawsuit to succeed in allowing developers to use other payment systems within their apps instead of forcing them to use Apple’s system, and a 30 per cent discount on all physical transactions that Apple obtains.

Apple, for its part, will not stop defending its position in imposing these application store policies. But the timing is very difficult for the company which is already facing hearings about its monopolistic practices and killing competition .

This story originally appeared on MENA Tech