Epic Games is seeking to ‘redo’ findings of a US antitrust case in Australia, claims Apple

As a court case in Melbourne approaches, Apple has accused Fortnite maker Epic Games of asking for a ‘free and unfettered licence to use its intellectual property’.

Epic Games, maker of the popular game Fortnite, has accused Apple of anti-competitive practices through its App Store.

Apple has accused Epic Games of seeking to use an Australian court to redo a case that it “overwhelmingly lost” in the US – an action it says, if successful, would harm user experience and other developers.

Epic, the maker of the popular Fortnite game, accuses Apple of abuse of market power by charging 30 per cent of all money made on mobile apps and not allowing game suppliers to provide their own payments services.

The two companies have been engaged in legal battles for the past four years, with Epic accusing Apple of violating antitrust laws.

But a federal appeals court in the US last year sided with Apple by upholding a 2021 ruling that supported Apple’s App Store policies.

Epic has now launched legal action against Apple and Google in Australia, and a 16-week trial is due to begin in Melbourne this month.
It is a test of whether Australian regulators can rein in big tech, running in tandem with the competition watchdog’s five-year inquiry into the local market power of the US tech titans.

An Apple spokeswoman on Thursday said the case was effectively a repeat of the battle waged in the US courts.

“Epic is seeking a redo of the case it overwhelmingly lost in the US, when a federal trial court found – and an appellate court affirmed – that Apple’s App Store business model does not violate antitrust laws,” the spokeswoman said.

“Under the guise of competition law, Epic is now asking an Australian court to grant it a free and unfettered licence to use Apple’s intellectual property to enhance its own bottom line at the expense of the user experience and other developers.

“The evidence we present in court will once again substantiate that the App Store business model provides a safe and trusted place for users, and a pro-competitive business opportunity for all developers.”

Last April. A panel of three judges on the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals sided with a federal judge’s ruling that rejected all but one of Epic’s claims and declared that Apple did not have monopolistic control over mobile game transactions.

“There is a lively and important debate about the role played in our economy and democracy by online transaction platforms with market power,” the US ruling said.

“Our job as a federal Court of Appeals, however, is not to resolve that debate, nor could we even attempt to do so. Instead, in this decision, we faithfully applied existing precedent to the facts as the parties developed them below.”

Although Apple won the 2021 case, US District judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers forced Apple to ease some of the restrictions on App Store payments.

This included letting developers provide links and buttons to direct customers to other ways to purchase content.

The Australian case comes as the European Union hit Apple with a €1.8bn fine ($2.98bn) last week for violating the bloc’s laws by preventing European users from accessing information about alternative, cheaper music streaming services.

Apple says it will appeal against the first-ever antitrust fine it has received from Brussels, the culmination of a case triggered by a complaint from Swedish streaming giant Spotify.

The European Commission found that “Apple applied restrictions on app developers preventing them from informing iOS users about alternative and cheaper music subscription services” available outside the App Store.

“The decision was reached despite the commission’s failure to uncover any credible evidence of consumer harm, and ignores the realities of a market that is thriving, competitive, and growing fast,” Apple said in a statement.

“While we respect the European Commission, the facts simply don’t support this decision.”

Additional reporting AFP.