In a motion to the court filed Friday, September 4, Epic Games requested an injunction restoring Fortnite to the iOS App Store; Epic filed the motion "to prevent Apple's retaliation against Epic for daring to challenge the illegal restrictions while our antitrust litigation is ongoing. to prevent Apple's retaliation against Epic". This is the latest legal maneuver in what is sure to be a long-drawn-out confrontation between two powerful tech companies, a situation that could be called Goliath versus a much larger Goliath.

The motion for a preliminary injunction follows the partial grant of a previous request for a preliminary injunction against Apple requiring much the same thing in layman's terms. The motion was partially successful in that it did not terminate Apple's access to Epic's development tools used to maintain the Unreal Engine on iOS. In very simplistic terms, this new motion argues that Epic Games' anti-exclusive lawsuit against Apple is so strong and likely to succeed that the court should grant Epic's request now rather than later.

"Apple is a monopolist; it controls all app distribution on iOS; it controls all in-app billing processes for digital content on iOS," Epic's motion states, and "by expressly prohibiting competitors from entering either market, these illegally maintaining two monopolies. This lawsuit is very likely to be lost."

The motion asks the court to stop Apple from "retaliating against Epic for daring to challenge Apple's wrongdoing."

Epic cites Apple's previous conduct - threatening Epic Games' Unreal Engine developer account - as evidence that Apple's other conduct is retaliation against Epic. Here are the relevant allegations in the preliminary statement of the motion: "In short, Apple, charged with antitrust violations for abusing its power to create and maintain two monopolies, exercised that same power to coerce Epic to comply with its unlawful restrictions.

Epic Games' lawsuit against Apple is over "monopolistic practices" by the multi-trillion dollar tech giant that controls the iOS ecosystem and all access to devices. The motion will be filed with the court on September 28.