U.S. states and Justice Department pile in on Epic’s side in Apple lawsuit

venturebeat.com:

A total of 35 U.S. states joined in an antitrust lawsuit to back up Epic Games’ lawsuit against Apple over alleged monopolistic practices.

Those states met the deadline for filing amicus briefs in Epic’s appeal to a federal court ruling that largely favored Apple, which banned Fortnite from the App Store in 2020 after Epic added a link to cheaper off-store item purchases to its iOS game.

The states said Apple’s conduct has harmed mobile app developers as well as users as it monopolized mobile app distribution and in-app payment solutions for iPhones. On Thursday, Apple said it had more than 1.8 billion active mobile devices in the market. Epic argued that this lucrative market is captive to Apple and constitutes a monopoly.

The case is an important conflict between a platform owner and a powerful game company that could set the rules of engagement and competition in an era that will be filled with giant tech and game companies. A lot of money is at stake here.

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But federal judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled in September that the market share in question was bigger, amounting to mobile game in-app purchases on both iOS and Android. Apple had a larger share of revenues, but not an overwhelming share in this market.

When Apple set up the App Store in 2008, it instituted a 30% commission on every in-app purchase transaction. While Apple may have earned that commission with the investments it made in the App Store and the iPhone, Epic argued that it effectively became a tax that sucked billions of dollars out of the game industry and should have been reduced. Apple said it could not calculate the actual profits. The court did not find that to be