In 2020, Epic Games filed a lawsuit against the Californian group for abuse of a dominant position. This ensures that the creator of Fortnite is only trying to increase their income.
Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, presented its initial arguments against Apple this Monday in a California court, where it wants to show that the technology giant has a monopoly on mobile applications that hurts the entire market, innovation and users.
“We are going to show, without ambiguity, that Apple exercises a monopoly,” Epic attorney Katherine Forrest said in opening remarks to the process.
The case is closely followed by the entire tech industry for its weight in the operation of dominant platforms, which Epic accused of being “walled gardens.”
Also read: European Union accuses Apple of unfair competition in music distribution
The metaphor refers to the ecosystems built and controlled by the technological giants, where they can establish the rules, prioritize their own products and attract users and developers, who have no alternative but to accept the conditions if they want to access this market.
“The most common flower in this walled garden is the venus flytrap,” Forrest said, alluding to a carnivorous plant. Without this abuse of a dominant position, “Epic would bring more innovation and better prices to consumers,” added the attorney.
Apple attorney Karen Dunn opened her defense by responding that Epic’s lawsuit is part of a “self-proclaimed war on mobile platform fees” that defies the law and the facts.
Apple is as monopoly as a grocery store that sells a wide range of products, competing with other stores, Dunn said, noting that people can play Epic games on multiple platforms including consoles, personal computers and smartphones made by rivals of Manzana.
“Apple did not create a secure and integrated ecosystem to keep people away, it did it to be able to invite developers, without compromising the privacy, reliability and quality that consumers wanted,” said the lawyer.
If Epic’s vision is imposed, Dunn said, “the result for consumers and developers will be less security, less privacy, less reliability, less quality, fewer options. All the things that antitrust laws seek to protect. “
“It took me time to realize”
Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said Apple’s performance forced his company to accept unfavorable terms or lose its huge iPhone user base.
When asked why he waited until now to file a lawsuit, he replied, “It took me a long time to realize all the negative impacts of Apple’s policies.”
Follow the news of El Espectador on Google NewsJudge Yvonne González Rogers heard from attorneys for both groups, and will also hear testimonies from their bosses, Tim Cook (Apple) and Tim Sweeney (Epic Games), as well as other witnesses in Oakland, a city near San Francisco. .
It all started last summer, when Epic Games offered its players to buy the cheapest Fortnite virtual currency if they went directly through its payment system, and not through Apple’s, which charges a 30% commission for these transactions.
Apple immediately removed the game from the App Store , its app store, a must-have on iPhones and iPads for downloading apps.
In context: Apple and Google remove Fortnite from their app stores
Fans of the battle royale game (first person survival video game) who only own Apple mobile devices have not had access to updates since then.
Epic Games filed a lawsuit against the Californian group for abuse of dominant position, and this ensures that the creator of Fortnite is only trying to increase its income.
Apple has argued for years that its commission of between 15% and 30% on sales made through the App Store is at a standard level and serves to ensure the proper functioning and security of the platform.
“It is the future of mobile computing that is at stake”
With appeals and remedies, the legal battle could last for years. But it could also influence the current debate on competition law.
Other companies, including music streaming services Deezer and Spotify, share Epic’s point of view and would like to more easily access this market of at least 1 billion people.
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Several antitrust regulators in the United States are investigating Apple’s practices, as well as those of the online trading platform Amazon.
And on Friday, the European Union, regarding a Spotify lawsuit, estimated that the iPhone manufacturer “distorts competition” to unseat its rivals , in particular thanks to “very high” commissions from which its de facto own applications.
On Android, Google’s operating system, widely predominant on smartphones, the app store works in a similar way, with one important difference: other download platforms are allowed.
The lawsuit “addresses a specific contractual agreement on in-app purchases, from an antitrust perspective. But the real question, for me, is: do we really want an ecosystem in which all applications have to go through the same door, which is controlled by the developer of the devices and the mobile operating system? ”, Asks Erik Stallman, Professor of Law at the University of Berkeley. “It is the future of mobile computing that is at stake.”
