Epic Games asks court to reverse Apple’s Fortnite ban

A week after its developer account was terminated, Epic Games has filed for a preliminary injunction seeking to have Fortnite back on the App Store and its access to the Apple Developer Program restored.

The company claims in the filing about “likely to suffer irreparable harm” if Fortnite does not come back on the App Store and that “the balance of harms tips sharply in Epic’s favor,” as noted by Reuters. It also describes Apple as a “monopolist” that maintains its ownership of the App Store by “explicitly prohibiting any competitive entry.”

The filing was made in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on Friday, where it also stated:

This was a clear warning to any other developer that would dare challenge Apple’s monopolies: follow our rules or we will cut you off from a billion iOS consumers – challenge us and we will destroy your business.

The legal battle is on a long run, which would have been resolved if only Epic had agreed to remove the direct payments feature from Fortnite while it could. But due to Epic’s obstinate decision it has lost 60 percent of its active users. Epic also quoted from a communication with Apple that the iPhone-maker has threatened to deny its entry to the Apple Developer Program “for at least a year.” The full document runs 38 pages.

During their first court hearing, judge ordered Apple not to take action against Epic’s developer account associated with Unreal Engine, but it could terminate Epic’s Fortnite developer account. And Apple did terminate Epic’s developer account on August 28. The next court hearing will take place on September 28.