35 US states, Microsoft back Epic Games in its fight against Apple

Although Epic Games may have largely lost its major lawsuit against Apple, it is now garnering major support.

San Francisco: A coalition of 35 US state Attorneys General, Microsoft and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have come forward to support Fortnite maker Epic Games’s ongoing court battle with Apple.

Although Epic Games may have largely lost its major lawsuit against Apple, it is now garnering major support.

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“It seems more than half the states in the US, Microsoft, and the many more groups filing amicus briefs (which are filed by someone who is not a party in the case, adding additional information that may be relevant) are siding with Epic,” reports The Verge.

A federal judge in the US last November directed Apple to let developers add links to external payment options on the App Store by December 9, denying the tech giant’s motion for a stay.

The order came in the Epic Games vs Apple antitrust lawsuit in California, filed last year by the Fortnite developer which went to trial this year.

Although Apple largely won that lawsuit, the US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers sided with the Fortnite publisher regarding restrictions on in-app purchases on the App Store.

In an opening appeal brief filed last week, Epic argued that letting the November ruling stand “would upend established principles of antitrust law and… undermine sound antitrust policy”.

“Apple’s conduct has harmed and is harming mobile app developers and millions of citizens,” the states said in their brief.

“Meanwhile, Apple continues to monopolise app-distribution and in-app payment solutions for iPhones, stifle competition, and amass supracompetitive profits within the almost trillion-dollar-a-year smartphone industry. Apple must account for its conduct under a complete rule of reason analysis,” the amicus brief by the 35 US states read.

Microsoft said that a “broad ruling for Apple could leave little room for a limiting principle to prevent Apple from leveraging its control of iOS to foreclose competition in countless adjacent markets”.