Epic has been trying to have the court call Apple a monopolist
Speaking of updates, Apple claims that Epic’s August 13th release has security risks that the developer has denied. Epic adds that Apple has not been able to show any evidence that these security risks exist. Epic also points out that Apple’s claim that Epic brought the legal action against it as a way to reignite declining interest in Fortnite is not true. Epic accuses Apple in the court document that “in pointing out an alleged 70% decline in Fortnite interest between October 2019 and July 2020, Apple cherry-picked Google Trends data concerning Google search volumes, misleadingly starting from a one-week spike that took place in October 2019 when Epic ran an in-game event that captured global attention.” During that period of time, Fortnite users actually increased according to the developer.
And while Apple says that Epic’s own app marketplace charges users and developers “a commission” based on in-app payments, Epic notes the difference between its store and the App Store. Developers can decide to use Epic’s payment processor for in-app purchases or it can use another payment processor and pay nothing to Epic. The latter option is one that developers don’t have in the Apple App Store.
Epic tells the court that it “looks forward to demonstrating at trial the unlawfulness of Apple’s conduct.” In the meantime, the developer says that the court should issue the requested injunction. Without the injunction, Epic says that it will suffer irreparable harm, an argument that Apple ignores by stating that the game developer is actually creating its own problems by offering the link to its own in-app payment platform. Apple is saying that the solution is in Epic’s hands. All it needs to do is remove that link to have Fortnite returned the App Store.
