Now this is war …
Epic Games, the maker of the hit multi-platform Fortnite game, has sued Apple for anti-competitive behavior, alleging that Apple monopolizes the App Store payments process and gouges developers for 30% of their revenues. At stake is billions of dollars in revenue for Apple. And potentially billions for Google too. “At a market cap of nearly $2 trillion, Apple’s size and reach far exceeds that of any technology monopolist in history,” the lawsuit says. “Apple imposes unreasonable and unlawful restraints to completely monopolize both markets and prevent software developers from reaching the over one 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.” It’s almost like Apple knew this was coming. Less than a month ago Apple released a commissioned report stating that Apple’s App Store fees are comparable if not lower than multiple other app stores and retailers. And a month before that, Apple released another commissioned report saying that 80% of the commercial activity that occurs on Apple’s mobile devices is not subject to any Apple payments, royalties, or commissions. This new lawsuit from Epic comes the same day as the company added an end-run to the iOS in-app payments system, which operates via Apple’s technology and comes with a 30% cut to Apple. And the same day that Apple, in turn, removed Fortnite from the App Store. Epic Games famously removed Fortnite from the major Android app store, Google Play, to avoid Google taking a 30% revenue cut from its in-app payments, only to late re-add it and critique Google for making it hard for people to sideload apps, or install apps that don’t originate from an official app store.
