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Epic Games‘s Fortnite video game was not available on Apple’s iPhone devices in the European Union and the United States on Friday. Access to Fortnite via Apple’s iPhone Operating System and through its App Store will be unavailable worldwide until Apple unblocks it, Epic Games said. Epic Games did not give a reason why Fortnite was blocked, but Apple said it had asked Epic Sweden to resubmit the app update without including the U.S. storefront so as not to impact Fortnite in other geographies. “We did not take any action to remove the live version of Fortnite from alternative distribution marketplaces,” an Apple spokesperson said. Epic, a U.S.-based studio, backed by China’s Tencent, is the world’s largest game studio. It was launched in 2017 and its last-player-standing, “battle royale” format became an instant hit, drawing millions of players. Since 2020, it has been in a legal battle with Apple, after the gaming firm alleged that Apple’s practice of charging a commission of up to 30% on in-app payments violated U.S. antitrust rules. Late on Friday, Epic Games asked a U.S. judge in California to hold Apple in contempt for blocking the return of Fortnite to the App Store in the U.S. In a court filing, Epic said Apple should be required, as part of a prior court ruling to allow the distribution of Fortnite. Apple’s blocking of the app was “blatant retaliation against Epic for challenging Apples anticompetitive behavior and exposing its lies to the court,” Epic’s filing added. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the filing outside regular business hours. Apple banned Fortnite from its store in 2020 but allowed the game back last year following pressure from European Union authorities for Big Tech companies to comply with the bloc’s Digital Markets Act. Last year, it also approved Epic Games’s marketplace app on iPhones and iPads in Europe. Epic Games also won a case against Apple earlier this month. Supantha Mukherjee, Akash Sriram, Mike Scarcella and Gursimran Kaur, Reuters
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E-Commerce
Last week, anticipated price hikes at Walmart attracted headlines across the country after CEO Doug McMillon warned that certain items would become more expensive as a result of President Donald Trumps tariff policies. During the company’s first-quarter earnings call for fiscal 2026, McMillon emphasized the retail giants commitment to keep priced competitive. We will do our best to keep our prices as low as possible,” he said. However, he warned that it would be difficult for Walmart to absorb all costs. He continued, Given the magnitude of the tariffs, even at the reduced levels announced this week, we aren’t able to absorb all the pressure given the reality of narrow retail margins. According to McMillon, the company would do its best to keep food and consumable costs as low as possible, but some food itemslike coffee, bananas, and avocados, typically imported from countries like Costa Rica, Peru, and Colombiawould likely be more at risk of higher prices. Trump weighs in over the weekend On Saturday, Trump took to Truth Social to lash out at the big box retailer. He posted: Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, EAT THE TARIFFS, and not charge valued customers ANYTHING. Ill be watching, and so will your customers!!! Officials for the United States and China announced earlier this month that an agreement had been reached to pause most tariffs for 90 days. However, uncertainty remains among retailers, given that Trump has frequently flip-flopped on his approach to tariffs. On Sunday, during an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told moderator Kristen Welker that he had talked to McMillon on a phone call and was told that Walmart is going to eat some of the tariffs, just as they did in 18, 19, and 20. When asked about the retailers stance on the potential for price increases, a Walmart spokesperson gave Fast Company the following statement: We have always worked to keep our prices as low as possible and we wont stop. Well keep prices as low as we can for as long as we can given the reality of small retail margins. Walmart stock slips on Monday Either way, investors are likely feeling on edge because of the tariff turmoil. On Monday morning, Walmart shares (NYSE: WMT) were down more than 2% in early trading. Markets were mostly down on Monday morning in the wake of Friday’s credit-rating downgrade from Moodys, although not as sharply. The S&P 500 was down 0.73% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.42%.
Category:
E-Commerce
New Jersey Transit’s train engineers reached a tentative deal Sunday to end their three-day strike that had halted service for some 100,000 daily riders, including routes to Newark airport and across the Hudson River to New York City. The union said its members would return to work on Tuesday, when trains would resume their regular schedules.The walkout that began Friday was the state’s first transit strike in over 40 years, forcing people who normally rely on New Jersey Transit to take buses, cars, taxis and boats instead or consider staying home. The main sticking point had been how to accomplish a wage increase for the engineers without creating a financially disastrous domino effect for the transit agency.The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen initially announced regular train service would begin again Monday, but moments later, union spokesperson Jamie Horwitz said NJ Transit informed them that it would be Tuesday at 12:01 a.m. instead.A transit agency statement said the Tuesday start was necessary because “it takes approximately 24 hours to inspect and prepare the infrastructure before returning to full scheduled service.”A union statement sent by email said the terms of the agreement would be sent to the union’s 450 members who work as locomotive engineers or trainees at the passenger railroad.“While I won’t get into the exact details of the deal reached, I will say that the only real issue was wages and we were able to reach an agreement that boosts hourly pay beyond the proposal rejected by our members last month and beyond where we were when NJ Transit’s managers walked away from the table Thursday evening,” said Tom Haas, the union’s general chairman at NJ Transit.He added that the union was able to show management “ways to boost engineers’ wages . . . without causing any significant budget issue or requiring a fare increase.”The union statement also said the deal would be submitted for a ratification vote by the national union and would require a vote of the New Jersey Transit board at its next regularly scheduled meeting on June 11. NJ Transit’s board also has to approve the deal.“To offer the understatement of the year, this is a very good outcome,” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said at a Sunday evening news conference. He commended the two sides for finding an agreement that is “both fair to NJ Transit’s employees while also being affordable for our state’s commuters and taxpayers.”NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri didn’t provide details of the deal, but said it was “fair and fiscally responsible.” He thanked the union for negotiating in good faith.“The deal itself reflects a series of concessions that came together by way of a work bill that will eventually end up paying for this fair wage that the union has asked for,” Kolluri said at the news conference.Buses would be provided on Monday, but Murphy and Kolluri both urged commuters, if possible, to work from home for one more day.“Please do that tomorrow so we can move essential employees through the system,” Kolluri said.A month earlier, members of the union had overwhelmingly rejected a labor agreement with management.NJ Transitthe nation’s third-largest transit systemoperates buses and rail in the state, providing nearly 1 million weekday trips, including into New York City. The walkout halted all NJ Transit commuter trains, which provide heavily used public transit routes between New York City’s Penn Station on one side of the Hudson River and communities in northern New Jersey on the other, as well as the Newark airport, which has grappled with unrelated delays of its own recently.Mark Wallace, the union’s national president, had said NJ Transit needs to pay engineers a wage that’s comparable to Amtrak and Long Island Railroad because some are leaving for jobs on those other railroads for better pay.The union had said its members have been earning an average salary of $113,000 a year and it wanted to see an agreement for an average salary of $170,000.NJ Transit leadership, though, disputed the union’s data, saying the engineers have average total earnings of $135,000 annually, with the highest earners exceeding $200,000. Weber reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writer Josh Funk contributed from Omaha, Nebraska. Bruce Shipkowski and Christopher Weber, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
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