Category: Antitrust Litigation
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Steve Jobs turning in his grave as EU tells Apple: we won’t let you silence critics like Epic Games—PR Waterloo, $30B risk
An X (forermely known as Twitter) post by EU internal market commissioner Thierry Breton makes it likely that Apple will now have to fold and let Epic Games run an iOS app store in the EU.
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Apple terminates Epic Games’ EU developer account, preventing Epic from making an alternative iOS app store
Apple’s termination of Epic’s Swedish subsidiary’s developer account means further escalation in the Epic-Apple dispute and raises a DMA enforcement question of first impression.
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App Store critics like Spotify and Epic got mixed results in middle game—but what’s their end game against Apple?
Like a chess game, breaking Apple’s app monopoly consists of opening, middle game and end game, Apple always planned for the whole distance. What about its rivals?
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Epic defends jury trial win over Google, disputes that Android-specific markets are single-brand aftermarkets
Epic Games generally has strong arguments that Judge Donato instructed the jury in accordance with controlling law and that the jury had substantial evidence before it to reach the conclusions it did. The most transcendental legal question in the case involves single-brand markets.
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Apple appeals certification of consumer class action over App Store cut; Epic Games opposes recovery of $73M fees
A couple of filings were made late on Friday in two App Store antitrust cases: Apple is appealing the certification of a consumer class challenging the 30% cut, and Epic Game opposes Apple’s demand for a $73M recovery of attorneys’ fees.
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Disney-Epic Games alliance has important past and current connections with Apple, Google app store fights
App store antitrust matters are not mentioned in the announcement of Disney’s $1.5 billion investment in Epic Games, but there are important implications, some of which are not merely speculative.
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U.S. court certifies 12-year-old consumer class-action claiming Apple’s standard App Store tax should be < 14%, not 30%
A 2011 consumer class-action lawsuit over Apple’s App Store that says a competitive commission would have been 13.69% instead of 30% has finally reached the point of class certification, but significant hurdles remain.
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Google wants Epic’s jury trial win overturned or at least a new trial, then without a jury: long list of arguments
Context: Last year, a San Francisco jury found for Epic Games on all counts against Google in an antitrust litigation over the Google Play Store. A motion for judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) that Google brought before jury deliberations even began was limited by the judge to only two pages, yet provided an…
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Epic Games formally tells U.S. court Apple isn’t complying with App Store injunction, announces contempt motion
Context: On January 16, 2024, Epic Games’ 2021 anti-anti-steering injunction under California law (but of nationwide scope and to the benefit of all app makers in the U.S.) entered into force after the Supreme Court of the United States declined to hear the matter (games fray article). Within hours, Apple filed an obviously prepared notice…
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Game and other app makers can take billions of dollars away from Apple every year with this strategy, leveraging Epic’s U.S. injunction
While Apple’s new link and button rules for apps in the U.S. market are hard to overcome, there is a workaround that games fray has identified and describes in this article.