Epic's new filing claims Apple 'has no rights to the fruits of Epic's labor'

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The messy legal battle between Epic Games and Apple rages on, and a new filing has the game developer firing back against the iPhone maker. Epic claims Apple "has no rights to the fruits of Epic's labor" in Friday's filing. 

Epic said, "Apple's repeated assertions of theft boil down to the extraordinary assertion that Epic's collection of payments by players of Epic's game to enjoy the work of Epic's artists, designers, and engineers is the taking of something that belongs to Apple." 

It reasoned that Epic couldn't "steal" sale proceeds since the product is from its creative efforts and that it didn't "interfere with any prospective economic advantage Apple sought to gain from Fortnite users separate and apart from their interest in Fortnite."

Apple hasn't responded to comments on this latest filing yet. But the case is being recommended to go to a jury to decide. The suggested trail frame is in the summer of 2021. 

The case started when Epic released a direct-payment system for Fortnite that bypassed Apple's 30 percent fee, resulting in the game getting kicked off the App Store for breaking its rules. The same day, Epic filed a civil lawsuit against Apple and Google (where it did the same thing), alleging the tech companies are violating the antitrust law. 

Epic got an injunction that stops Apple from retaliating against Epic's Unreal Engine, but it couldn't get an injunction to restore Fortnite on the App Store. 

For its part, Apple is seeking damages against Epic for allegedly breaching its contract, with counterclaims of unjust enrichment and tortious interference with Apple's relationship with its customers.

Source: The Verge