Inside ‘Fortnite’ Creator’s Epic Legal Battle With Apple and Google – And Who Has the Upper Hand
Epic Games’ decision to sue Apple and Google over the removal of its wildly popular “Fortnite” game from their app and gaming sites is an unprecedented move that could completely change how the tech giants pay third-party developers, but legal experts say a lack of prior antitrust rulings will make the case difficult to win in court. “This is a game of leverage being fought on the legal battlefield,” Matt Bilinsky, business attorney at Los Angeles law firm Weinberg Gonser, told TheWrap. He noted that Epic — which reported $4.2 billion in revenue in 2019, according to VentureBeat — is one of the only game developers with enough money and clout to challenge goliaths like Apple and Google. The companies got into a public feud on Thursday shortly after Epic started offering a discount on the “Fortnite” in-game currency called V-Bucks. If customers purchased the currency directly from Epic instead of through the App Store, they saved roughly 20% — and Epic pocketed all the cash instead of paying Apple’s standard 30% commission on App Store transactions. Apple promptly booted “Fortnite” from the App Store, and Epic responded with a lawsuit accusing Apple of antitrust violations for a fee structure...
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