A U.S. federal judge has dismissed some of Apple’s counterclaims against Epic Games in the ongoing dispute between the two companies.
The legal battle between Apple Epic began in August when Epic launched its own in-app payment system to bypass Apple’s 30 percent App Store fees, which has led to Fortnite being removed from the App Store.
Epic filed a motion in October to dismiss the tech giant’s counterclaims, in which Apple is demanding lost App Store fees and other damages.
A judge had ruled that the tech giant could ban Fortnite, but couldn’t infringe on Epic’s developer tools business including the Unreal Engine, which is used to power hundreds of other popular titles.
Epic has now won the dismissal of two of Apple’s tort claims. Apple had accused Epic of theft and sought monetary damages beyond breach of contract, but a judge dismissed the argument on November 10th.
”This is a high-stakes breach of contract case and an antitrust case and that’s all in my view. You can’t just say it’s independently wrongful. You actually have to have facts,” the judge told lawyers representing Apple, as reported by Bloomberg.
The judge has now thrown out the two claims, as the rest of the case will now move forward.
Source: Bloomberg
