Fortnite — the popular game developed by Epic Games — can be found in households worldwide. However, due to an ongoing antitrust lawsuit between the company and tech giant Apple, the game is missing from the App Store. Despite its absence, the game boasts over 350 million users worldwide and shows that big tech platforms are not as dominant as U.S. lawmakers believe.
The antitrust suit between Apple and Epic Games centers around Apple’s requirement that apps on its store use Apple’s payment system and the prohibition of external payment platforms. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that Apple could require the use of its sales system in the App Store but prohibited Apple from preventing the use of outside links that would go to alternative systems. Additionally, the ruling stated that while Apple’s actions are anti-competitive, its large market share and profits were not enough to show it’s a monopoly. Epic games appealed the ruling, claiming that Apple is an illegal monopoly preventing competition.
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