Apple Says Epic Games ‘Wants Us to Be Android, But We Don’t Want to Be’
The highly-anticipated Epic Games vs. Apple trial started today in a federal court in Oakland, California, with attorneys for both business delivering opening remarks before District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.
Legal Representatives for Epic Games attempted to paint the App Store as monopolistic and anti-competitive, noting that designers are forced to use Apples in-app purchase system, and thus pay Apple a 30% commission on sales. (The rate drops to 15% for subscriptions after the very first year and for certifying designers who sign up for Apples brand-new Small Business Program and make less than $1 million per fiscal year in net income.).
Impressive Games explained the App Store as a “walled garden” and presented emails from present and previous Apple executives like Steve Jobs, Phil Schiller, Craig Federighi, Eddy Cue, and Scott Forstall in an effort to show this claim.
Impressive Games wants Apple to be required to allow third-party app shops on iOS and to let developers use direct payment systems, but Apple argued that a single, highly-curated App Store is necessary to safeguard the security, privacy, dependability, and quality that consumers have actually come to get out of the company.
” Epic wants us to be Android, but we do not wish to be,” said Apple lawyer Karen Dunn, describing the ability to sideload apps outside of the Google Play shop on Android devices. “Our consumers dont desire that either,” she added.
Legendary Games is the creator of popular battle royale video game Fortnite, which Apple eliminated from the App Store in August 2020, soon after Epic Games slyly introduced a direct payment alternative in the app, in defiance of the App Store guidelines. Epic Games then submitted an orchestrated claim versus Apple, accusing the business of anti-competitive behavior.
At the time, Apple said Epic Games “took the regrettable step of breaching the App Store guidelines that are applied similarly to every designer and developed to keep the store safe for our users,” adding that it would “strive to deal with Epic to fix these offenses so they can return Fortnite to the App Store.” Impressive Games has refused to comply, nevertheless, and Fortnite stays unavailable on the App Store.
Impressive Games CEO Tim Sweeney testified at the trial today, saying that by introducing the direct payment option, he wanted consumers to see that Apple exercises “overall control” over iOS and software available on the platform.
The trial is expected to continue for an overall of 3 weeks, with Apples CEO Tim Cook and other executives anticipated to testify.