Fortnite freed Fortnite will return to iOS after court slams Apple’s “obvious cover-up” "This is an injunction, not a negotiation. ... The Court will not tolerate further delays." Kyle Orland – Apr 30, 2025 8:19 pm | 20 A Fortnite loading screen displayed on an iPhone in 2018, when Apple and Epic weren't at each other's throats. Credit: Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images A Fortnite loading screen displayed on an iPhone in 2018, when Apple and Epic weren't at each other's throats. Credit: Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more Epic CEO and founder Tim Sweeney said in a Zoom call with press Wednesday night that the company is "going to do everything we can to bring Fortnite back to the iOS App Store next week." That decision comes after a federal district court found late Wednesday that Apple was in "willful violation" of a 2021 injunction designed to allow iOS developers to steer customers to alternate payment processors for in-app purchases. That 2021 injunction wound its way through years of appellate review until January 2024, when the Supreme Court declined to hear a final attempt by Apple to overturn it. Since then, the District Court for Northern California has been holding a series of evidentiary hearings examining the internal development of Apple's so-called "compliance plan" for the injunction. In a scathing Wednesday night order, District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers determined that Apple had engaged in a plan to "thwart the injunction's goals," and then engaged in an "obvious cover-up" to prevent that plan from being revealed. Apple's response to the initial injunction "strained credulity," the judge said, and reflected Apple's attempt to "[thwart] the Injunction’s goals, and continued its anticompetitive conduct solely to maintain its revenue stream." More than that, Judge Gonzalez Rogers said that Apple's in-court testimony in initial hearings on that conduct were in "stark contrast" to evidence that came out later in contemporaneous business documents, which showed that "Apple knew exactly what it was doing and at every turn chose the most anticompetitive option." The judge writes that Apple VP of Finance Alex Roman "outright lied under oath" in testimony about Apple's internal deliberations, while CEO Tim Cook "chose poorly" in actively deciding not to comply with the court's injunction.Judge Gonzalez Rogers writes that Apple's conduct represents a "clear and convincing violation" of her initial injunction that has been referred to the District Attorney for Northern California "to investigate whether criminal contempt proceedings are appropriate." "Apple’s continued attempts to interfere with competition will not be tolerated," Gonzalez Rogers wrote. "This is an injunction, not a negotiation. There are no do-overs once a party willfully disregards a court order. Time is of the essence. The Court will not tolerate further delays." An Epic return With the new court order in place, Epic says it will once again submit a version of Fortnite to the iOS App Store in the US in the next week or so. That new version will offer players the option to use standard Apple App Store payments or its own, cheaper "Epic Direct Payment" system to purchase in-game currency and items. That would mirror the system that was briefly in place for iOS players in August 2020, when Epic added alternate payment options to iOS Fortnite in intentional violation of what were then Apple's store policies. Apple removed Fortnite from the iOS App Store hours later, setting off a legal battle that seems to finally be reaching its conclusion. For those few hours when Epic Direct Payments were available on iOS Fortnite in 2020, Sweeney said that about 50 percent of customers "decided to give Epic a shot," going through an additional step to register and pay through an Epic account on a web page outside the app itself (and saving 20% on their purchase in the process). The other roughly 50 percent of customers decided to pay a higher price in exchange for the convenience of paying directly in the app through the iOS account they already had set up, Sweeney said. "Consumers were making the choice... and it was a wonderful thing to see," he said. Speaking the the press Wednesday night, Sweeney said the new court order was a "huge victory for developers" looking to offer their own payment service alongside Apple's on iOS devices. "This is what we've wanted all along," he said. "We think that this achieves the goal that we've been aiming for in the US, while there are still some challenges elsewhere in the world." This is a developing story and will be updated with more information. Kyle Orland Senior Gaming Editor Kyle Orland Senior Gaming Editor Kyle Orland has been the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica since 2012, writing primarily about the business, tech, and culture behind video games. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He once wrote a whole book about Minesweeper. 20 Comments