A lawsuit between Apple and Epic Games began in federal court in California on May 3 (local time). The lawsuit is a bench trial decided by the judge due to COVID-19 considerations and the lawsuit’s expertise. In this trial, key executives, including company CEOs, Tim Sweeney, and Tim Cook, will be on the witness stand. Last year, the lawsuit was triggered when Apple withdrew Fortnite from its App Store due to policy violations when Fortnite lead to its payment site. After being kicked out, Fortnite has not yet returned to the Apple Store.
The controversial issue in this trial is the fees Apple will take away. Epic Games asserted that Apple’s App Store committed a breach of anti trust laws by receiving 30% of sales. Apple refuted that few app developers pay fees because most apps are free and added that the average fees for real app developers are 15%. Also, Apple reported the need for a single market to protect the security of the platform. They submitted Android security statistics and iOS security statistics to prove their assertion. Added to this, they said that if the result of the trial goes as Epic Games wants, there will be fewer choices of security, privacy, reliability, and quality for consumers and developers.
Epic Games has formed the Coalition for App Fairness (CAF) with music streaming company Spotify and dating app Tinder’s Match Group, pointing to Apple’s high commission and operating policy. On April 30, the EU tentatively concluded that Apple violated anti trust law by abusing its exclusive command of the App Store in the music streaming application market. As a result of this trial, the profit structures in the mobile industry and app markets are expected to be completely reversed. Many people are paying attention to what changes will be made in the global app market, where Google and Apple are the main players.
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