Apple and Epic Games have been locked in legal proceedings ever since the iPhone maker removed Fortnite from the App Store over a year ago. Today, September 10, the judge in the trial has handed down a permanent injunction in Epic's favor in some respects, mandating that Apple must allow app developers to source income from outside of the App Store ecosystem.

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers concluded in the ruling that the court could not prove that Apple was engaging in monopolistic behavior under federal or state anti-trust laws, but that "the trial did show that Apple is engaging in anti-competitive conduct under California’s competition laws." This was the only count that the court sided with Epic Games on, with Apple winning all other nine counts.

"The Court does not find that Apple is an antitrust monopolist in the submarket for mobile gaming transactions," the ruling reads. "However, it does find that Apple’s conduct in enforcing anti-steering restrictions is anticompetitive. A remedy to eliminate those provisions is appropriate. This measured remedy will increase competition, increase transparency, increase consumer choice and information while preserving Apple’s iOS ecosystem which has procompetitive justifications. Moreover, it does not require the Court to micromanage business operations which courts are not well-suited to do as the Supreme Court has appropriately recognized."