Epic Games' ongoing legal battle with Apple over Fortnite's availability on iOS devices has escalated, with Epic accusing Apple of blocking its latest submission to the U.S. App Store. This development comes after Epic CEO Tim Sweeney announced that Fortnite would soon return to iOS in the U.S. following a significant court ruling.

On April 30, a U.S. Federal District Court in California ruled that Apple had willfully violated a court order in the Epic Games v. Apple case. The order mandated Apple to allow developers to offer alternative purchasing methods outside their apps. This ruling was a pivotal moment in the long-standing dispute, which stems from Epic's desire to avoid the standard 30% store fees and instead use its own Epic Games Store for mobile games like Fortnite.

Epic's Tim Sweeney is determined to defeat Apple and Google, however long it takes. Photo by SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg.

The conflict began in earnest back in 2020 when Fortnite was removed from iOS due to Epic's refusal to pay the app store fees. Despite Sweeney's recent announcement that Fortnite would return to iOS, the game remains unavailable. Epic issued a statement to IGN, revealing that "Apple has blocked our Fortnite submission so we cannot release to the US App Store or to the Epic Games Store for iOS in the European Union. Now, sadly, Fortnite on iOS will be offline worldwide until Apple unblocks it."

Hi Tim. How about if you let our mutual customers access Fortnite? Just a thought.

— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) May 15, 2025

Following the court's ruling, Apple was referred to federal prosecutors for violating the court order. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers emphasized, "Apple’s continued attempts to interfere with competition will not be tolerated. This is an injunction, not a negotiation. There are no do-overs once a party willfully disregards a court order." The judge also referred Apple's vice president of finance, Alex Roman, to federal prosecutors for a criminal contempt investigation, citing misleading testimony about Apple's compliance efforts.

In response to the ruling, Apple stated, "we strongly disagree with the decision. We will comply with the court’s order and we will appeal." Last week, Apple requested that the U.S. appeals court pause the ruling in the Epic Games case.