Following on from its lawsuit against Apple last week, Epic Games has filed for a temporary restraining order following the mobile giant's decision to prevent Epic from developing for its iOS and Mac platforms.
Citing Apple's actions as being likely to cause irreparable harm, in violation of the Sherman Act — a federal statute that prohibits activities that 'restrict interstate commerce and competition in the marketplace' — and not being in the public interest, Epic are ramping up their aggressive legal play.
Today has been one hell of a day for Epic Games, which has culminated in them initiating legal action against the mobile behemoth and debuting a mock short film in-game.
In their preliminary statement for the injunction, Epic highlights testimony that Apple boss Tim Cook gave to Congress a couple of weeks ago that his firm doesn't 'retaliate or bully people', given it was 'strongly against our company culture.'
This action seemingly counters that argument, as it essentially prevents Epic from doing *anything* on Apple's platform, and has provoked the second lawsuit. In their statement, Epic says this also applies to the Unreal Engine, which Epic 'offers to third-party developers'.
Epic also claim repeatedly in their request that they are likely to 'succeed on the merits of its claims', referring to the initial suit filed last week, but that their business will be 'irreparably harmed long before a final judgement comes'.
Another inference made in Epic's filing is that the update offering the payment method choice that kickstarted the battle between the two firms was in fact signed off by Apple, and therefore Epic shouldn't be punished for offering consumers the choice:
"Epic has made hotfixes to Fortnite for years without Apple objection."
Epic is now seeking to restrain Apple from ' removing, de-listing, refusing to list or otherwise making unavailable the app Fortnite, including any Fortnite update, from the App Store', as well as prohibiting Apple 'from taking steps against Epic’s other games and against the Unreal Engine in retaliation'.
Epic's claim that Apple's action 'harms millions of innocent customers worldwide' is certainly with merit, and not only relating to the inability to play Fortnite. Unreal Engine is one of the most popular development tools in the industry, and this action could harm countless other developers who use it to create their games.
There are several other claims and explanations in the 34-page document, which you can read in full here.
In the meantime, we wait for the next move from either side.
