After a three-hour federal court hearing, a California judge has recommended a jury trial in July 2021 to resolve a case between Apple and Epic Games, the maker of the popular game Fortnite.
Epic Games sued Apple on Aug. 13 after the tech giant pulled the mobile version of Fortnite off of its App Store. The game was pulled after Epic introduced a workaround option to purchase V-Bucks, Fortnite’s in-app currency, directly from Epic rather than completing a transaction through the App Store. Apple receives a 30% cut from all purchases completed on its platform.
Epic accused Apple of violating antitrust laws by forcing app developers to use Apple’s payment systems for in-game content. “[Apple] harms app developers’ relationship with their customers by inserting itself as a mandatory middleman in every in-app transaction,” the court filing states. “Consumers … are forced to pay higher prices and suffer inferior customer service from Apple, the unwelcome middleman.”
On Sept. 8, Apple filed a countersuit against Epic, accusing the company of a breach of contract and seeking monetary damages to recover losses incurred while Epic’s direct purchasing was in effect.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers heard Epic’s arguments via videoconference on Monday in the Northern District of California.
Despite popular support for Epic’s case among developers, including Spotify and the Match Group (two companies that joined with Epic to create the Coalition for App Fairness to “defend the fundamental rights of creatures to build apps and to do business directly with their customers”), Gonzales Rogers seemed to doubt some of Epic’s central arguments. “You did something, you lied about it by omission, by not being forthcoming. That’s the security issue. That’s the security issue!” she told Epic, according to CNN. Gonzales Rogers added that she was “not particularly persuaded” by Epic’s argument, comparing Apple’s practices to the “walled garden” practices of Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft.
The judge suggested returning the game to the App Store without Epic’s payment system, placing Apple’s monetary damages in escrow until the case is over. Epic’s legal team did accept the idea, and Apple’s lawyer said he would have to discuss it further with his client.
The case comes amid several federal investigations into Big Tech companies concerning antitrust laws. In July, the CEOs of Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and Google appeared before Congress to testify, and a report from Congress’s yearlong investigation is expected soon. The Justice Department also announced that it expects to file an antitrust lawsuit against Google amid an investigation of its “monopolistic practices.”
