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| Apple and Epic Games lose their case |
Epic Games has waged a protracted war with Apple. This was after Epic Games decided to pay directly within the game and remove Fortnite from the App Store. This is against his contract and also against generally accepted content in iOS apps and games.
The court issued its first ruling in the case. So it's very simple, Apple and Epic Games have lost the case. But Epic Games' losses are even greater.
Overall, the app developer might be the only one to win this lawsuit, but Epic Games isn't one of them.
Judge Gonzalez Rogers ruled and issued a permanent national injunction preventing Apple from using its payment method as an exclusive payment method in apps, games and the App Store.
The war between Apple and Epic Games
The US court has recognized that app developers have the right to add other payment methods of their own. However, there is still no clear resolution and many details are missing.
Indeed, the court mentioned the possibility of adding a "button" for payment. In fact, the decision depends entirely on how the court defines the term "button". However, as a result of this step, Apple lost as much as 19 billion dollars.
When it comes to Epic Games, the court usually does not uphold this. While the company has successfully applied for additional funds to avoid monopolies, it has achieved its goals.
Perhaps the company's main focus in this legal war has been to restore Fortnite games for the iOS platform, and the company has been far from successful. However, the judge found that Fortnite's previously expanded external payment methods clearly violated the contract with Apple.
On the other hand, Apple has completely banned the Epic Games account from the App Store. Hence, Judge Gonzalez Rogers (Gonzalez Rogers) admitted that Apple has the right to do so.
Giant Corpino reserves the right to reject any app or game published by Epic Games. Although it belongs to a subsidiary, the judge recognized it in the final judgment.
On the other hand, Epic Games also lost $3.6 million to Apple. In fact, the company directly invested $12.2 million in the game Fortnite before it was removed by Apple, and the judge recognized that Apple was entitled to 30% of this amount. Corresponds to the percentage of payment that Apple typically receives.
Check out the epic game
Among the largest technology companies in the world, the above amount is not very large. However, that's not all that Epic Games has lost. Because the company lost its investment in Apple's litigation costs, including legal fees, legal fees and many other things.
In addition, the biggest loss is the number of players who are unable to access Fortnite games on iPhone and iPad tablets. The game generated an estimated $614 million in sales on iOS in its first two years alone. Only $52.7 million of that in the fourth quarter of 2019.
And since the game was removed from the store, Epic Games has only taken advantage of it if the player owned it on the phone before it was removed from the store. However, they are not very different.
apples are dangerous
There is no doubt that Epic Games' losses are already enormous. However, when developers rely on third-party payment methods to provide services for their apps, this is nothing compared to the losses Apple can incur.
In fact, as mentioned above, the Cupertino giant generates up to $19 billion in revenue each year from in-app payments or in-store sales of paid apps and games. The company buys only a third of that amount in the US market.
Epic Games do not dare to invoke the court ruling on their victory because they did not appeal their games on the Apple platform. However, his opponent did. However, Apple described the court ruling as a "big win."
Perhaps the company was right, in those cases it was first indicted as a corporation under the Sherman Antitrust Act, but ended up with only one charge under California antitrust law.
In contrast, the court did not attempt to force the company to provide various app stores on the iPhone or even allow external installation of apps. He also did not comment on the 30% the company received, nor did he ask for the reduction.
All in all, the company will not accept any loss of $19 billion annually. On the other hand, the court's decisions have been described as highly biased. So no one knows what will happen in the coming months in this regard.