Epic Denied Preliminary Injunction for Fortnite
Juli Clover (also: Hacker News):
A California judge today denied Epic Games’ request for a preliminary injunction that would have required Apple to allow Fortnite back into the App Store, which means the app will continue to remain unavailable on Apple’s iOS platform for the duration of the legal battle between the two companies.
While the Fortnite app for iOS devices will not be reinstated into the App Store , Epic did successfully win an order that will require Apple to continue to allow Epic to operate its Unreal Engine developer account.
While the TRO was a pre-PI decision, the PI is preliminary to a hypothetical permanent injunction that may or may not come down after the bench trial to be held in Oakland in May 2021. Whoever loses will likely appeal, and then it’s another question whether a permanent injunction coming down at that point will or will not continue to be enforced.
[…]
The PI order gives both parties some guidance as to where they bear the burden of proof and on what aspects of the case they must do more going forward. For instance, Apple will later have to convince the court that what its app distribution terms are designed to achieve cannot be achieved with softer rules. Only Epic, however, is told that “adamant[ly]” taking unreasonable, “baffling” positions has already made it lose some of its credibility with Judge Gonzalez Rogers.
Arguing that the hotfix to introduce direct payment was not deceptive seems like an unforced error.
Previously:
- House Report on Competition in Digital Markets
- Epic v. Apple Hearing
- Court Rules on Epic’s Temporary Restraining Order
- Epic Direct Payment
