Apple denies violating US court order in Epic Games lawsuit By Reuters

Mike Scarcella

(Reuters) – iPhone maker Apple on Friday denied violating a court order governing its App Store and urged a California federal judge to deny Fortnite developer Epic Games’ request for App Store contempt.

Apple violated antitrust laws by tightly controlling how consumers download apps and pay for transactions, Apple said in a 2020 filing with U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers (NYSE:) in Oakland, who presided over Epic’s lawsuit. I was accused of doing it.

The Apple filing criticized Epic’s attempt to make Apple’s “tools and technology available to developers for free.”

Epic said it wanted the court to “micromanage Apple’s business operations in a way that increases Epic’s profitability.”

Epic declined to comment. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the dispute, which is part of a long-running fight between the two companies.

Although Epic largely lost its case against Apple, Rogers ordered Apple in 2021 to give developers greater freedom to direct app users to alternative payment methods for digital goods.

In January, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Apple’s appeal of the injunction.

Epic said in a court filing last month that Cupertino, California-based Apple had “blatantly violated” the court’s injunction. It points to Apple charging developers a 27% fee on some purchases, which the video game maker said makes links to alternative payment options “commercially unusable.”

Epic also claimed that Apple prohibited some apps from informing users of other ways to pay for goods.

Last month, Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:), Microsoft (NASDAQ:), and Elon Musk’s X and Match Group (NASDAQ:) echoed Epic’s claims, telling Rogers that Apple had “clearly violated” the court order.

In a similar case brought by Epic against Alphabet (NASDAQ:)’s Google, a San Francisco judge is expected to issue a separate injunction this year affecting the Google Play Store.

The case is Epic Games Inc v Apple Inc (NASDAQ:), U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. It’s 20-05640.