Epic Games almost immediately appealed the ruling in its lawsuit versus Apple

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Late last week, the judge in the massive lawsuit between Epic Games and Apple made a ruling and the lawsuit seemingly came to a conclusion. But of course, major lawsuits like this never end that easily and Epic Games has almost immediately appealed the ruling.

At first, the ruling looked like a simple win for Epic Games, with Apple being forced to allow third-party payment systems in the future. However, it turned out to have a few more implications.

Though the judge said that Apple could no longer stop developers from using third-party payment options, Epic Games was ordered to pay some pretty hefty fines for previously violating Apple’s rules.

For violating Apple’s rules, Epic Games was ordered to pay $3.65 million to Apple in damages. That comes out to 30% of the revenue that Epic earned while it violated Apple’s payment rules, which is the cut Apple would have taken in the first place.

Despite what turned out to be a small win, Epic Games was not satisfied and has now appealed the ruling. While it’s unknown the exact legal basis for the appeal, initial reports from The Verge point to the antitrust allegations that claim Apple has a monopoly with the App Store.

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said in her ruling, “The evidence does suggest that Apple is near the precipice of substantial market power, or monopoly power, with its considerable market share,” and that, “[Epic] did not focus on this topic.”

It seems like Epic will likely use this appeal to push the monopoly idea, but we’ll have to wait and see. What does look pretty certain, however, is the fact that Epic Games now owes Apple a good chunk of money.

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