An Epic Games antitrust complaint has been filed against Apple in Europe after similar ones in the US and Australia.
In this latest one, Epic claims that “Apple not only harmed competition, but also eliminated it completely” in iOS and iPadOS apps …
Epic made the announcement today.
Epic Games announced today that it has filed an antitrust complaint against Apple in the European Union (‘EU’), which has expanded the company’s fight to promote fairer digital platform practices for developers and consumers.
The complaint, filed with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition, alleges that Apple, through a series of carefully designed competition restrictions, not only harmed competition in the distribution and payment processes of apps. Apple uses its control over the iOS ecosystem to benefit itself while blocking competitors, and its behavior is abusive of a dominant position and in violation of EU competition law.
Epic claims that Apple is harming customers as well as developers.
“What’s at stake here is the future of mobile platforms.” Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney said this today. ‘Consumers have the right to install programs from their own sources and developers have the right to compete in a fair market. We will not dwell on allowing Apple to use its platform dominance to be a level playing field. This is bad for consumers who pay inflated prices due to the lack of competition between stores and payment processing in the app. And that’s bad for developers, whose livelihoods often depend on Apple’s full discretion over who’s allowed on the iOS platform and on what terms. ”
Business Insider has a statement from Apple in response.
“Epic was one of the most successful developers in the App Store and has grown into a multimillion-dollar business that reaches millions of iOS customers around the world, including in the EU. In a way that a reviewer describes as misleading and clandestine, Epic enabled a feature in its app that was not reviewed or approved by Apple, and did so with the express intent of violating the App Store guidelines that are equally much applies to every developer and customer protected. .
“Their reckless behavior has made customers pioneers, and we look forward to making that clear to the European Commission,” Apple’s spokesman said.
The EU has not yet commented on the complaint.
The US court case is expected to be heard in July. Back in September, the judge said Epic was ‘not honest’ in his approach, but also said Epic had the right to oust Tim Cook CEO Tim Cook for seven hours. Apple initially argued Cook did not have to testify at all before offering four hours. Epic asked for eight hours and got seven.
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