Epic games He argues that the behavior an Apple Its ‘strictly restrictive’ rules regarding app distribution and payment gateways are a ‘clear violation’ of competition law in the UK.
“By putting competition to its knees and exercising its monopoly power over app distribution and payments, Apple is depriving consumers of the right to choose how and where to obtain their apps.”
In addition, the company accused Apple of “monopolistic practices” by preventing users and developers from acquiring or distributing applications through digital stores other than Apple’s stores.
By putting competition to its knees and exercising its monopoly power over app distribution and payments, Apple is stripping consumers of the right to choose how and where to obtain their apps, while locking developers into a single store that allows Apple to charge whatever commission they consider, ”defended the founder and CEO of Epic Games Tim Sweeney.
The lawsuit before the CMA comes after the UK’s antitrust appeals court refused to proceed with a lawsuit against Epic against Apple, arguing that the US was the appropriate jurisdiction for it.
While the lawsuit filed with the Capital Markets Authority aims to denounce a potential anti-competitive practice, forcing the regulators to remedy the situation and sanction the company for the potential breach, the case brought before the court was limited to the dispute between the two parties.
“These harmful practices artificially inflate costs for consumers and inhibit innovation among developers, many of whom are unable to compete in a digital ecosystem that is being rigged against them.”
In February, the video game company filed a similar lawsuit against Apple with European Commission Competition Services.
The conflict between Epic Games and Apple began several months ago, when the creator of Fortnite enabled an iOS version of the game for a different payment platform from Apple itself, allowing it to skip the 30% commission charged by Apple on transactions. Due to this, something that Apple’s App Store policies do not allow, the Cupertino Corporation has blocked updates on It is an electronic game.
“These harmful practices create artificially inflated costs for consumers and inhibit innovation among developers, many of whom are unable to compete in a digital ecosystem that is rigged against them,” Sweeney added.
In November, Apple cut its commission on in-app transactions to 15% for companies with $ 1 million annually in bills.
