Epic Games has filed an antitrust complaint against Apple in the European Union, alleging that the company uses „a series of carefully designed anti-competitive restrictions“ to eliminate competition in mobile app distribution and payment processing systems. Put simply, Epic takes issue with Apple's insistence that all iOS applications be distributed through its App Store, and that they exclusively use Apple's payment processing system—with Apple getting a 30 percent revenue cut. The EU complaint, filed with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition, is the third such action taken by Epic against Apple, following similar complaints that are already underway in the US, Australia, and the UK.“What’s at stake here is the very future of mobile platforms,“ Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney said in a statement. „Consumers have the right to install apps from sources of their choosing and developers have the right to compete in a fair marketplace. We will not stand idly by and allow Apple to use its platform dominance to control what should be a level digital playing field.“It's bad for consumers, who are paying inflated prices due to the complete lack of competition among stores and in-app payment processing. And it's bad for developers, whose very livelihoods often hinge on Apple's complete discretion as to who to allow on the iOS platform, and on which terms.“The dispute between Epic and Apple began in August 2020, when Epic added a new payment system to Fortnite's iOS version that could be used instead of Apple's—which, more to the point, bypassed Apple's 30 percent fee. Epic's payment system was in direct contravention of Apple's policies, and the company retaliated almost immediately by removing Fortnite from the App Store. Epic replied in kind by rolling out a Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite promo, based on Apple's famous 1984 Macintosh ad, and then a few minutes after that—remember, this all happened on the same day—filed a lawsuit against Apple over Fortnite's removal.Since then, Apple has launched a countersuit against Epic after characterizing the whole thing as a marketing stunt, while Epic won a small victory in the form of a preliminary injunction preventing Apple from blocking the Unreal Engine on the App Store. Epic launched legal proceedings against Apple Australia in November 2020, and filed a complaint with the UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal in January 2021.Sweeney has also been very vocal about the matter on social media:
Epic Games has filed an antitrust complaint against Apple in the European Union, alleging that the company uses „a series of carefully designed anti-competitive restrictions“ to eliminate competition in mobile app distribution and payment processing systems.
