Apple bills Epic Games $73 million in legal costs

AppleInsider

Following the end of the Epic Games vs Apple case, the "Fortnite" developer will be required to pay Apple over $73 million in legal fees.

Still from the Epic Games parody of Apple's "1984" ad

The three-year legal battle between Epic Games and Apple fizzled out on January 16, 2024, as the Supreme Court simply declined to hear appeals from either side. With the case concluded, however, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has ruled that Epic Games owes Apple $73,404,326 in legal fees.

As spotted by GamesFray, that is actually a discount rate.

#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

So Apple reports having spent $82,971,401 in legal fees, and for unclear reasons adjusts that to $81,560,362. The $73,404,326 figure is then a 10% discount for Epic having won 1 of its 10 counts.

That $73 million is not the final figure, though. The court's "Notice of Motion" has set a date of March 24, 2024, for a hearing regarding the fee, "plus additional amounts Apple is incurring during this ongoing litigation, under the indemnification provision of the Developer Program License Agreement."

As spotted by iMore, this indemnification stems from how Epic Games breached the developer agreement it had with Apple when it tried offering its own alternative payment system in August 2020.

That was the start of what Epic Games originally portrayed as a reaction to Apple removing "Fortnite" from the App Store, but then later admitted had instead been a long-planned campaign intended to force third-party stores on iOS.



Read on AppleInsider

dennyc69

Music to my ears.

40domi

AppleInsider said:

Following the end of the Epic Games vs Apple case, the "Fortnite" developer will be required to pay Apple over $73 million in legal fees.

Still from the Epic Games parody of Apple's "1984" ad

The three-year legal battle between Epic Games and Apple fizzled out on January 16, 2024, as the Supreme Court simply declined to hear appeals from either side. With the case concluded, however, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has ruled that Epic Games owes Apple $73,404,326 in legal fees.

As spotted by GamesFray, that is actually a discount rate.

#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

So Apple reports having spent $82,971,401 in legal fees, and for unclear reasons adjusts that to $81,560,362. The $73,404,326 figure is then a 10% discount for Epic having won 1 of its 10 counts.

That $73 million is not the final figure, though. The court's "Notice of Motion" has set a date of March 24, 2024, for a hearing regarding the fee, "plus additional amounts Apple is incurring during this ongoing litigation, under the indemnification provision of the Developer Program License Agreement."

As spotted by iMore, this indemnification stems from how Epic Games breached the developer agreement it had with Apple when it tried offering its own alternative payment system in August 2020.

That was the start of what Epic Games originally portrayed as a reaction to Apple removing "Fortnite" from the App Store, but then later admitted had instead been a long-planned campaign intended to force third-party stores on iOS.



Read on AppleInsider

Lovely 😊
Massimo had better start saving, they'll be paying a lot more next year for loss of sales, well either them or ITC..

beowulfschmidt

Epic already doesn't make any money.  I wonder where they'll get it.

Watch Unreal Engine licensing change to something more like Unity tried to do.

wonkothesane

The legal fees are proof that “Davids” stand no chance against “Goliathes”, and the depth of your pocket determines to what extend you are able to get your rights in court. It is a system that does not reflect equality in front of the law.

omasou

wonkothesane said:

The legal fees are proof that “Davids” stand no chance against “Goliathes”, and the depth of your pocket determines to what extend you are able to get your rights in court. It is a system that does not reflect equality in front of the law.

Epic brought a frivolous lawsuit and lost 9 out of 10 accusations. Of course they should have to pay for wasting the court's time and reimburse the wrongly accused for their costs.

Epic is by no means a "David"

Cesar Battistini Maziero

wonkothesane said:

The legal fees are proof that “Davids” stand no chance against “Goliathes”, and the depth of your pocket determines to what extend you are able to get your rights in court. It is a system that does not reflect equality in front of the law.

Epic is wrong. They want access to a user base Apple built at no cost.

red oak

F around, find out 

Tim Sweeney’s head is going to explode 

Respite

beowulfschmidt said:

Epic already doesn't make any money.  I wonder where they'll get it.

Huh?

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1234193/epic-games-annual-income/#:~:text=In 2024, video game publisher,billion U.S. dollars in 2019.

The Epic Games Store isn't profitable, are you thinking of that?

carnegie

I'd note that this is one issue on which Apple initially lost, with the district court determining that Apple wasn't entitled to attorney's fees from Epic. But the Ninth Circuit reversed that finding and remanded to the district court to determine how much Apple was owed. So that's what's left, determining how much Apple gets for attorney's fees.

I could see this issue going either way. Apple could get essentially all that it's asking (or will ask) for. Or, based on the wording of the indemnification clause at issue, I could see Judge Rogers' greatly reducing what Apple gets. I wish the Ninth Circuit had provided a little more clarity on this front as it seems likely to me that this matter will end up back before the Ninth Circuit.

baconstang

I'm sure Epic will cough it up within a fortnite...

lotones

beowulfschmidt said:

Epic already doesn't make any money.  I wonder where they'll get it.

Watch Unreal Engine licensing change to something more like Unity tried to do.

They'll just use the money they'll get from winning the case against Google. It's basically Monopoly money... pun slightly intended. 

chasm

Suck it, Sweeney.

auxio

wonkothesane said:

The legal fees are proof that “Davids” stand no chance against “Goliathes”, and the depth of your pocket determines to what extend you are able to get your rights in court. It is a system that does not reflect equality in front of the law.

And I'm sure that's how Sweeney will spin it for those who prefer to listen to stories rather than understand reality.

wonkothesane

omasou said:

wonkothesane said:

The legal fees are proof that “Davids” stand no chance against “Goliathes”, and the depth of your pocket determines to what extend you are able to get your rights in court. It is a system that does not reflect equality in front of the law.

Epic brought a frivolous lawsuit and lost 9 out of 10 accusations. Of course they should have to pay for wasting the court's time and reimburse the wrongly accused for their costs.

Epic is by no means a "David"

Cesar Battistini Maziero said:

wonkothesane said:

The legal fees are proof that “Davids” stand no chance against “Goliathes”, and the depth of your pocket determines to what extend you are able to get your rights in court. It is a system that does not reflect equality in front of the law.

Epic is wrong. They want access to a user base Apple built at no cost.


My Comment is NOT about EPIC, and I have a clear idea what they deserve. It is about the legal system in general, where when your budget hits a wall, your chance to receive justice does as well.

Marvin

Respite said:

beowulfschmidt said:

Epic already doesn't make any money.  I wonder where they'll get it.

Huh?

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1234193/epic-games-annual-income/#:~:text=In 2024, video game publisher,billion U.S. dollars in 2019.

The Epic Games Store isn't profitable, are you thinking of that?

Last year Sweeney emailed his employees saying they have been spending more than they earn for a while so had to downsize their staff count by 16% to ensure long-term financial stability:

https://www.epicgames.com/site/en-US/news/layoffs-at-epic

They've been using a lot of their earnings to buy exclusives for their game store (a few hundred million per year):

https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/12/22380895/epic-games-store-afford-give-away-17-5-billion-free-games

and they've been investing heavily in the metaverse like Meta:

https://fortune.com/2023/10/27/mark-zuckerberg-net-worth-metaverse-losses-46-billion-earnings-stock/

The metaverse is influencing this legal battle. Sweeney thinks it has the potential to be a multi-trillion dollar industry and wants to ensure that it's not subject to 3rd party fees:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/metaverse-multitrillion-dollar-opportunity-epic-061741883.html

"Epic CEO Blasts Apple and Google, Calls for Single App Store

“The metaverse is a term like the internet. No company can own it,” the Epic chief said."

They want to build the equivalent of the internet inside a game world, effectively a game that behaves like a browser, where you can play games, buy things, watch movies, listen to music, chat with friends online.

It seems like an odd concept but some kids are hooked on these kind of games, someone had to be treated for addiction due to playing over 20 hours per day:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/fortnite-spain-teenager-drug-abuse-b1921367.html

One mistake they are making with the metaverse is thinking it has universal appeal. Epic's player demographic is 90% male, 60% under 24, 23% age 25-34.

It's true that due to mobile restrictions, it would be near impossible to make a modern equivalent of a browser. This is why Meta is selling their own hardware. But for mobile devices to operate safely at scale needs restrictions and some kind of revenue structure to make it sustainable. If it's possible to build a successful mobile platform that is open and has no revenue structure, Sweeney can try building one. Android is open source, fork it, build an Epic/Fortnite Phone possibly in partnership with a hardware company and sell it.

zeus423

Epic!