The UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal has dismissed Epic Games' antitrust case against Apple, accusing the iPhone of antitrust practices. In its lawsuit, Epic Games alleged that Apple "not merely harmed but completely eliminated competition" in the distribution and payment of apps on its popular App Store, with "a series of carefully designed restrictions on competition."
The two companies have been embroiled in a legal dispute since August 2020, when Apple (like Google) removed Fortnite from its App Store in response to Epic Games implementing an in-app payment system for the gameto bypass paying the 30% commission fee to those stores.
Judge Peter Roth has ruled that the case against Apple does not fall within the jurisdiction of the British court. Thus, the court found that it was not responsible for making decisions about which applications can or cannot be provided through the Apple App Store and, therefore, it cannot be assumed that the British arm of Apple acted anti-competitively.
The UK Court's dismissal of the lawsuit brings the number of lawsuits Epic Games has filed against Apple to three. The remaining legal proceedings, filed in Australia, the US and the EU, specifically target Apple's app distribution and payment processes.
Epic Games has provided similar arguments in all of its lawsuits, saying it is not seeking damages from Apple but wants regulators to address the tech giant's alleged anti-competitive behavior.
Epic alleged in its US claim, which was the first of the lawsuits filed, the following: “Apple has become what it once opposed: The megalomaniac who seeks to control markets, exclude competition, and stifle innovation. Apple is bigger, more powerful, more entrenched, and more pernicious than the monopolies of yesteryear. At a market cap of nearly $2 trillion, Apple’s size and reach far exceed any technology monopoly in history.”
Over the weekend, Apple subpoenaed Valve for information about the company's annual sales, revenue, and pricing for Steam store apps as part of its legal battle with Epic Games. Although Valve is not a party to the Epic Games-Apple standoff, Apple requested this information as it claims it is necessary to calculate the size and definition of the market for its case.
Valve has provided a small set of documents, but Apple says they are “so heavily redacted” that the company can’t see anything from them. Essentially, Apple is once again asking Valve to provide documents showing a range of numbers related to the Steam. According to the document, these include “total annual app and in-app product sales, annual Steam ad revenue, annual Steam attributable external product sales, annual Steam revenue, and annual Steam profit (gross or net).”
Valve said it would be a "huge job" to produce even a single point as part of the data, pointing to one of Apple's specific requests, which asked it to identify the "dates of sale, plus any price and price changes" of 436 games found on both the Epic Game Store and Steam, from 2015 to the present.
Valve also pointed out that Apple's "excessive demands impose an enormous burden on a non-participant in the legal dispute" and that the company has not shown that it has a "substantial need" for the information it is requesting.
