By Mike Scarcella
(Reuters) – IPhone maker Apple on Friday denied violating a court docket order governing its App Retailer and urged a California federal choose to reject a request by “Fortnite” developer Epic Video games to carry it in contempt.
Apple made the arguments in a submitting to U.S. District Choose Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers (NYSE:) in Oakland, who presided over Epic’s lawsuit in 2020 accusing Apple of violating antitrust legislation with its tight controls over how shoppers obtain apps and pay for transactions inside them.
The Apple submitting criticized what it known as an try by Epic to make Apple’s “instruments and applied sciences accessible to builders without cost.”
Epic, it mentioned, wished the court docket “to micromanage Apple’s enterprise operations in a approach that might enhance Epic’s profitability.”
Epic declined to remark. Apple didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark concerning the dispute, a part of an extended struggle between the 2 firms.
Epic largely misplaced its case towards Apple, however Rogers in 2021 ordered Apple to offer builders higher freedom to information app customers to different cost strategies for digital items.
The U.S. Supreme Court docket in January declined to listen to Apple’s enchantment of the injunction order.
Epic mentioned in a court docket submitting final month that Cupertino, California-based Apple was in “blatant violation” of the court docket’s injunction. It pointed to Apple’s imposition of a 27% payment on builders for some purchases, which the online game maker mentioned makes hyperlinks for different cost choices “commercially unusable.”
Epic additionally alleged Apple barred some apps from informing customers about different methods to pay for items.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:), Microsoft (NASDAQ:), Elon Musk’s X and Match Group (NASDAQ:) final month echoed Epic’s arguments, telling Rogers that Apple was in “clear violation” of the court docket’s order.
In the same case that Epic introduced towards Alphabet (NASDAQ:)’s Google, a choose in San Francisco is predicted this 12 months to problem a separate injunction affecting the Google Play Retailer.
The case is Epic Video games Inc v Apple Inc (NASDAQ:), U.S. District Court docket, Northern District of California, No. 20-05640.
