Epic Games Wants Supreme Court To Revive Antitrust Case Against Apple

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Epic Games Wants Supreme Court To Revive Antitrust Case Against Apple

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Fortnite developer Epic Games on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to hear an appeal of a ruling dismissing the company's antitrust claims against Apple.

The move comes in a battle dating to the summer of 2020, when Epic sued Apple over app store policies that required game developers to use Apple's payment platform for in-app purchases, and charged a 30% commission. (Apple currently charges smaller developers with less than $1 million in revenue a 15% commission.)

Epic claimed Apple monopolizes the iOS app distribution market, and unlawfully forces developers to use its payment processing system.

Apple countered that its restrictive policies protect users security and privacy.

U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in the Northern District of California largely sided with Apple. She ruled Epic hadn't proven its antitrust claims, but also found that Apple's anti-steering policies -- which prohibited developers from offering in-app links to outside payment platforms -- violated California's unfair competition law.

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Both companies then appealed to the 9th Circuit, which upheld Rogers' ruling.

Epic is now asking the Supreme Court to take up the case, essentially arguing that Rogers and the 9th Circuit gave too much weight to Apple's justifications for its policies, and too little weight to the impact those policies had on competition.

Apple is also expected to appeal Rogers' finding that anti-steering provisions ran afoul of California's law against unfair competition.

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September 27, 2023 at 09:36PM