Fortnite video game returns to iPhone app store in U.S., ending exile imposed by Apple

Key Points

• Fortnite returns to the U.S. iPhone and iPad App Store for the first time since its 2020 ouster over Apple’s in-app fee dispute.
• The revival follows Epic Games’ motion and a civil contempt ruling by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ordering Apple to restore the game.
• Epic sued Apple alleging an App Store monopoly, losing the main antitrust case but securing a ruling forcing Apple to allow links to external payment options.
• Apple’s new payment system still levies a 27% commission on transactions outside its platform, fueling ongoing legal battles between the two companies.

The popular video game Fortnite has returned to the iPhone app store in the U.S., ending a prolonged exile that was triggered by a legal showdown over the lucrative fees that Apple had been collecting for years through a payment system that it has been forced to change.

Fortnite hailed its app's long-awaited restoration to the iPhone and iPad in a Tuesday pos t, marking the first time it will be available on those devices since it was ousted in 2020 for trying to avoid the 15% to 30% commissions that Apple collects on in-app transactions.

The video game featuring a virtual fight on a digital island is coming back to the iPhone just a few days after its parent company, Epic Games, filed a motion asking a federal judge to order its return as part of a civil contempt of court finding issued against Apple late last month.

In a brief statement filed in court late Tuesday, Apple said the dispute that had been keeping Fortnite off its iOS software for the iPhone had been resolved. The Cupertino, California, company didn't immediately respond to a request for further comment.

The legal wrangling is all part of a bitter feud that is still boiling.

Epic filed a lawsuit alleging Apple had turned its app store into an illegal monopoly — a claim that it lost under a 2021 ruling made by a federal judge after a month-long trial.

Although she decided Apple wasn't breaking antitrust laws, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ordered the company to loosen control over in-app payments and allow links to other options that might offer lower prices.

After exhausting an appeal that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, Apple last year introduced a new system that opened the door for links to alternative payment options while still imposing a 27% commission on in-app transactions executed outside its own system.

Epic fired back by alleging Apple was thumbing its nose at the legal system, reviving another round of court hearings that lasted nearly a year before Gonzalez Rogers delivered her stinging rebuke that included a ban on collecting any kind of commission on alternative payment options.

That appeared to clear the way for Fortnite's return to the iPhone and iPad, but Epic last week said the video game was still being blocked by Apple. After Apple contended that keeping Fortnite was still permissible while it pursues an appeal of Gonzalez Rogers' contempt ruling, Epic forced the issue by asking the judge for another order that would make clear the video game should be allowed back on the iPhone and iPad.

Gonzalez Rogers on Monday asked why Apple was still blocking Fortnite without an order from the appeals court authorizing that action. She scheduled a May 27 hearing in Oakland, California, to hear Epic's latest motion while noting “Apple is fully capable of resolving this issue without further briefing or a hearing.”