contract-law online payment
Why did Fortnite get banned from the App Store?
<p>Recently, there was this conflict between Apple and the Fortnite devs, because Fortnite introduced In-App-Purchases that did not use the standard App Store payments, so that the fees did not have to be payed.</p>
<p>But what were the exact legal reasons for banning the app from the App Store and how could have Epic Games prevented the situation?</p>

<p>Apples <a href="https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">App Store guidelines</a> (the rules for being accepted into the App Store that developers agree to be bound to via their developer account) says this:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>3.1 Payments</strong></p>
<p><strong>3.1.1 In-App Purchase:</strong></p>
<p>If you want to unlock features or functionality within your app, (by way of example: subscriptions, in-game currencies, game levels, access to premium content, or unlocking a full version), <em><strong>you must use in-app purchase</strong></em>. <em><strong>Apps may not use their own mechanisms to unlock content or functionality</strong></em>, such as license keys, augmented reality markers, QR codes, etc. <em><strong>Apps and their metadata may not include buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms other than in-app purchase.</strong></em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Epic Games breached these guidelines in their Fortnite game by enabling a payment mechanism in the IOS Fortnite app which did not use Apples In-App payment system.  Their approach in Fortnite did not fall under any of the exclusions Apple allows in 3.1.3 of the above document.</p>
<p>Epic Games could have avoided this conflict by not enabling their own payment mechanism.</p>
