Apple wants Epic Games to pay $73.4 million in legal fees after Apple won the antitrust case brought against it by the North Carolinian games maker. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court declined to hear separate requests from both Apple and Epic Games in their long-standing lawsuit against each other regarding App Store rules, effectively closing a case that has run since August 2020.
In multiple rounds of the dispute, Apple has won on every count with the exception of just one regarding Apple's "anti-steering" rule, which the company promptly addressed on Tuesday. As a result of the Supreme Court's decision, the previous rulings stand and Apple is able to continue to disallow third-party payment processing within apps.
Now though, Apple has asked the court to allow it to bill Epic for its litigation expenses, which amount to a whopping $73,404,326. According to gamesfray's Florian Mueller, Apple came up with the number by totaling up the $82,971,401 in legal costs it spent on the case, and then adjusted that number down to $81,560,362. Apple then deducted 10% since Epic prevailed on 1 of 10 counts (Apple's anti-steering rule).
Apple bases the claim on Epic's original violation of its developer agreement, when out of the blue its Fortnite game offered an in-app payment alternative on the App Store. Epic previously accepted that it would owe damages if it lost its antitrust claims against Apple. Now that it has, Apple has issued the bill.
#Apple wants #EpicGames to reimburse $73 MILLION AND COUNTING (the dispute isn't over yet) in litigation expenses. Apple says it's spent $82,971,401 defending against that case, adjusts it to $81,560,362, then deducts 10% as Epic prevailed on 1 of 10 counts ➡️ $73,404,326. 🧵1/4 pic.twitter.com/0Qwa3yA6es — gamesfray (@games_fray) January 17, 2024
For its Notice of Motion, the court has set a date of March 5, 2024 to hear Apple's claim about the fees owed, "plus additional amounts Apple is incurring during this ongoing litigation, under the indemnification provision of the Developer Program License Agreement."
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