Epic hits back at Apple, saying it 'has no rights to the fruits of Epic's labor'

Epic is standing its ground in a legal back-and-forth with Apple and, in a filing spotted by The Verge, has argued against the notion that Epic’s decision to cut Apple out of the payment process is robbing the iPhone maker of its rightful share.

It’s the latest in a series of filings and lawsuits that sprung out of Epic Games' calculated decision to include its own payment processing service in Fortnite that would allow Epic to circumvent the App Store's 30 percent revenue tax.

Apple quickly pulled Fortnite from the App Store following the move, triggering a lawsuit from Epic Games that has, among other things, accused Apple of anticompetitive behavior by barring other companies from offering storefronts or in-app payment processing services on iOS.

While Apple maintains that it is entitled to 30 percent of Fortnite’s iOS revenue due to the agreement that Epic Games (and all developers) signed to release a game on the App Store, Epic repeatedly says in this latest filing that Apple “has no rights to the fruits of Epic’s labor.”

“Simply put, Epic did not ‘steal’ anything that belonged to Apple,” reads the filing.

“Apple’s repeated assertions of theft boil down to the extraordinary assertion that Epic’s collection of payments by players of Epic’s game to enjoy the work of Epic’s artists, designers, and engineers is the taking of something that belongs to Apple,” continues the document.