![]() ![]() ![]() Separately, Apple and Google are among tech companies targeted by various government antitrust probes, including by the Justice Department, FTC and state attorneys general. He called the situation “a high-stakes game of poker”: “Apple needs to make sure the Epic challenge, which is timely in light of antitrust swirls and growing opposition to Big Tech within the Beltway, does not create a ripple impact which developers globally are watching carefully.” “egally Apple has successfully defended its App Store moat again and again with this time being no different in our opinion,” Ives wrote in a research note. And Epic’s bid to crack the edifice of Apple’s App Store, for one, is a long shot, according to Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives. In other words, the case is not a slam-dunk. The “Fortnite” challenge to Apple and Google app stores is “not black and white, but full of gray, and it responds to public opinion, political pressure, and changes in economics and technology,” she noted. To win the case against Apple, Epic will have to show that Apple’s policies aren’t just about the revenue that the 30% commission represents, “but rather are about keeping competitors like Epic - platforms that could compete with Apple’s ‘ecosystem’ - from gaining market share,” according to Allensworth.Įpic is taking an interesting legal tack in alleging that Apple’s iOS is an “essential facility.” Allensworth said that’s an antitrust doctrine that was disfavored in the early 2000s, but “may be making a comeback in light of the competition problems we now more fully recognize in dominant digital platforms.” Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), who pointed out that app developers “have no choice but to go along with or they must leave the App Store. In its complaint against Apple, Epic cited the critique of Rep. “Epic is sending a clear message: It’s not seeking remedy for some harm specific to ‘Fortnite,’ but rather it’s taking on monopoly in a broad sense,” Allensworth said.Įpic’s legal gambit also is strategically timed to follow last month’s House Antitrust Hearing in which the allegedly anticompetitive practices of Apple’s App Store, in particular, were put under the microscope. Rebecca Allensworth, who specializes in antitrust law. ![]() But what was atypical was Epic’s highly coordinated attack, and the fact that the company is asking only for injunctive relief rather than monetary damages, said Vanderbilt University Prof. Such antitrust lawsuits by private companies aren’t unusual. Assistant Attorney General for antitrust in the Obama administration. Varney of Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath, who was U.S. The Epic lawsuits had apparently been months in the drafting, and the company enlisted big-name antitrust lawyers, including Christine A. Meanwhile, citing Google’s founding “Don’t Be Evil” principle, Epic Games says in that lawsuit, “Twenty-two years later, Google has relegated its motto to nearly an afterthought, and using its size to do evil upon competitors, innovators, customers, and users in a slew of markets it has grown to monopolize.” “Epic respectfully requests this Court to enjoin Apple from continuing to impose its anticompetitive restrictions on the iOS ecosystem and ensure 2020 is not like ‘1984,’” the company says in the Apple complaint. Today, according to Epic, Apple is acting like Big Brother. Yesterday Epic released “Ninety Eighty-Fortnite” (pictured above) promoted with the hashtag #FreeFortnite, a spoof of Apple’s famous Orwellian “1984” Super Bowl ad in which the company styled itself as the free-thinking underdog to IBM’s Big Brother. In a jujitsu-like flourish showing the “Fortnite” fight is as much about rallying fans - and winning in the court of public opinion - Epic Games turned idealistic rhetoric used by Apple and Google against the two giants. Developers that distribute their apps through the Google Play Store are barred from offering alternate payment-processing options besides Google’s. The Google Play store also amounts to a monopoly, accounting for more than 90% of Android app downloads, Epic says in the complaint against Google. “Apple imposes unreasonable and unlawful restraints to completely monopolize both markets and prevent software developers from reaching the over 1 billion users of its mobile devices (e.g., iPhone and iPad) unless they go through a single store controlled by Apple, the App Store, where Apple exacts an oppressive 30% tax on the sale of every app,” Epic says in the lawsuit against Apple. ![]()
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