Epic Games to appeal ruling in Apple monopoly case

Epic Games has decided to appeal the case against Apple, which revolves around Apple’s possible monopolistic policy on the App Store. The judge ruled in favor of Apple on most points, including monopolistic behavior.

Based on a court document, it appears that Epic Games has appealed to a higher court. It was previously reported that the company behind Fortnite and the Unreal Engine planned to appeal. It concerns the verdict as made on Friday. Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, already indicated that that ruling is not in the best interest of developers or consumers.

Few details are available from the new court document, but the appeal will likely revolve around the US judge’s ruling that Apple is not a monopolist. While the judge ruled that Apple should allow developers to allow buttons, links or other resources for gamers who make in-app purchases, Apple was not required to support third-party digital stores.

The American judge came to this judgment because, in its opinion, Epic Games has not convincingly substantiated that there is a monopoly. The judge ruled that the mobile game market is the relevant market and that Apple controls 55 percent of this market, including ‘exceptionally high profit margins’. These may be elements to conclude that there has been a violation of the competition rules, but according to the judge that was not enough. She stated that Apple could not be judged on this, because Apple’s market share does not yet exceed 55 percent, other parties are also starting to step into the mobile game market and because Epic Games has not paid enough attention to this topic.