Epic games and Apple

A court in Oakland, California, will rule on Epic Games' antitrust suit against Apple within the next few weeks. This was reported by The Wall Street Journal.

At Monday's hearing, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers heard final arguments for four hours, and joked that she hoped to issue a ruling by August 13, one year after the Fortnite game update that is the subject of the suit was made available on the App Store. A spokeswoman then clarified that she intended to determine the fate of the case within a few weeks. The lawsuit could fundamentally transform the way the mobile app market works by changing the system of making profits from installing third-party apps. The App Store currently charges a 15 to 30 per cent commission on all in-app transactions and blocks any ability to make purchases outside of its platform. At the end of last year, the App Store generated about $57 billion in revenue for Apple.

Even after the court ruling, the litigation could continue, as the parties will have the opportunity to appeal. During the hearing representatives of Epic Games pointed out the unfairness of monopolizing the App Store payment system, in turn, Apple appealed to the fact that their platform is a single mechanism, whose structure is designed to keep users' data safe and to ensure the reliability of the entire system.

On 14 August 2020, it was reported that Epic Games had sued Apple and Google after they removed Fortnite from the App Store and Google Play catalogues. Apple and Google attributed the removal of the video game (which is Epic Games' best-known product) from their shops to the fact that the updated version of Fortnite, released on August 13, violated their rules by allowing players to purchase currency and other purchases directly within the game, bypassing the built-in payment mechanisms of the app directories. Last fall, a court in Auckland had already considered whether Apple should restore access to Fortnite, at which time the game's removal was ruled valid.