Tech
Epic Games Sues Apple For Violating United States Court Order
(CTN News) – ‘Fortnite’ developer Epic Games has requested a California federal judge hold Apple in contempt under a court order that governs its App Store. A new tab opened by Apple (AAPL.O), which denied violating the court’s order.
An Apple filing opened a new tab for US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, who presided over Epic’s lawsuit against Apple in 2020 accusing Apple of violating antitrust law with its strict controls on apps and transactions.
In a filing, Apple criticized Epic for trying to make Apple’s “tools and technologies freely available to developers.”
The court was asked to micromanage Apple’s business operations in such a way that Epic Games was able to increase its profitability.
Epic Games did not respond to our comment request. Despite an inquiry from Apple regarding the dispute, part of a long-running conflict between Apple and Microsoft, no response was received.
Despite the victory in the Epic case against Apple, Rogers ordered Apple to give developers greater flexibility when guiding app users to alternate payment methods in 2021.
As a result of the US Supreme Court’s ruling in January, Apple’s appeal against the injunction order was denied.
As a result of Epic Games’ violation of a court order last month, a lawsuit has been filed against the company. As a result of Apple’s imposition of a 27% fee on developers for some purchases, the video game publisher said links for alternative payment options are no longer commercially viable.
Aside from that, Epic Games claims Apple forbids users from seeing alternative payment methods in some apps.
Meta Platforms (META.O), Microsoft (MSFT.O), and Elon Musk’s X and Match Group (MTCH.O), all had agreed with Epic’s analysis of Apple’s action earlier this month, saying they had found Apple’s behavior to be “clearly in violation” of the court order.
In a similar case Epic filed against Alphabet (GOOGL.O) in San Francisco, a judge is expected to issue a separate injunction affecting the Google Play Store.
A case called Epic Games Inc v Apple Inc has been filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, No. 20-05640.
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