Epic Games loses another battle in its war against Apple

Epic Games’ war with Apple began in 2020, when it used Fortnite as a spearhead, but 3 years later it continues to give people something to talk about. Once again, the result is not so favorable for Epic Games, since it lost another battle with the Cupertino giant again.

The last battle fought by these companies occurred in 2021. The judge in charge of the case found that Apple prevents users from buying at a lower price, but rejected the idea that the App Store is a monopoly. Despite the fact that with the judge’s verdict it was possible for Apple to allow developers to offer users other payment methods indirectly outside the App Store, the need for third-party stores was not found, much less the modification of the fees charged by Apple to developers.

Epic Games, unhappy with the result (which it deemed a loss), filed an appeal seeking recognition that Apple’s online marketplace policies violated federal law because they prevented third-party apps from establishing marketplaces on Apple’s operating system. Apple, one of the main reasons why Epic Games began its fight.

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Epic Games lost again against Apple

On Monday, April 24, 2023, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in Apple’s favor once again, upholding the judge’s original verdict, that Apple does not violate antitrust laws. In other words, Epic Games did not achieve its goal with the appeal.

“There is a lively and important debate about the role that online trading platforms with market power play in our economy and democracy,” the appeals panel said. “However, our job as a federal appeals court is not to resolve that debate, nor could we even attempt to. Instead, in this decision, we faithfully apply existing precedent to the facts.”

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The appeals court says that the lower court “erred” in defining the appropriate antitrust market, but concluded that it was “harmless”, in addition to the fact that Epic Games failed to “show its proposed market definition and the existence of any alternative means substantially less restrictive for Apple to achieve the pro-competitive justifications that support the iOS walled garden ecosystem.”

On the other hand, the panel agreed that Epic Games was “hurt” under California competition law as a result of Apple’s previous policy that prevented developers from encouraging users to use different payment methods, for which asked the judge to review its ruling that Epic Games owed Apple’s fees that it used to pay its lawyers.

Epic Games and Tim Sweeney have not commented on it.

Apple celebrated its new victory against Epic Games

For its part, Apple celebrated the verdict, which it considered a “resounding victory”, noting that 9 of the 10 appeals were resolved in its favor.

“The App Store continues to promote competition, drive innovation and expand opportunity, and we are proud of its profound contributions to both user and developers around the world. We respectfully disagree with the verdict on the remaining remaining claim under the state law and we are considering further review,” Apple said in a statement to Bloomberg.

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