Apple versus Epic court battle continues, as iPhone maker denies violation

While the Supreme Court denied appeal requests from both Apple and Epic Games in the App Store case, that didn’t put an end to legal wrangling between the two companies.

In January, Epic Games headed back to court to accuse Apple of failing to comply with the original antitrust ruling, and now the Cupertino company has asked a judge to dismiss the complaint …

The story so far

• Epic Games introduced its own in-app payment system on iPhone
• This bypassed the App Store, and denied Apple its 30% commission
• This was a blatant breach of App Store terms & conditions
• Apple responded by throwing the company off the App Store
• The two companies went to court
• The court told Epic that Apple did not operate a monopoly
• The court told Apple it must allow app sales outside the App Store
• Both cases appealed the parts of the ruling they didn’t like
• The US Supreme Court declined to hear either appeal

That decision meant the original court rulings stand, and Apple promptly responded with an announcement that, sure, it would allow third-party app sales – but it would still charge a 27% commission on them (12% for small developers).

That didn’t satisfy antitrust regulators in either the US or Europe, however. In Europe, the regulator has said it is not satisfied that Apple is complying with the law, and has opened a formal non-compliance investigation. In the US, the Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against the company.

Epic accused Apple of non-compliance

Epic didn’t waste any time in accusing Apple of acting in bad faith, arguing that its new terms went against the entire intent of the ruling.

The company argued that Apple’s terms prevent developers from offering cheaper app sales on the web since they would still have to pay the company a 27% commission despite the App Store not being involved in the transaction. Allowing for around 3% in payment processing costs, this would see them paying the same 30% they pay on App Store sales.

The company filed an official non-compliance report back in January, asking that Apple be held in contempt of court.

Apple denies violation, and calls for dismissal

Reuters reports that Apple has now responded to this complaint, denying any violation of the court’s ruling, and calling on the contempt complaint to be dismissed.

Apple on Friday denied violating a court order governing its App Store and urged a California federal judge to reject a request by “Fortnite” developer Epic Games to hold it in contempt.

Apple made the arguments in a filing to U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, who presided over Epic’s lawsuit in 2020.

The iPhone maker accuses Epic of trying to “micromanage” how Apple runs its business “in a way that would increase Epic’s profitability.”

Neither company had commented at the time of writing.

Photo by Angus Gray on Unsplash