Apple has emerged largely victorious in the latest round of a legal battle with Epic Games, which focuses on antitrust laws and the way the App Store is run. Epic's suit, sparked by various shenanigans around the hugely popular Fortnite, says that Apple's marketplace violates federal law by banning third parties from using their own payment platforms on the operating system: That is, it's a monopoly.
The suit began in 2020 after Epic updated Fortnite on iOS with a payment workaround, which would bypass Apple's usual 30% cut. In response, Apple promptly banned the app. Essentially this is all about the cut the platform-holder is taking from third party developers, and whether those developers should have the right to implement their own payment systems. The 2021 judgement in the case largely sided with Apple though gave Epic one win in finding that certain restrictions of the App Store were anti-competitive, and since that Apple has been actively working to address those concerns.
