It’s a small earthquake in the world of video games and mobile applications. The Californian technology giant will no longer be able to force publishers to use its payment system within their applications, a US judge decided on Friday (September 10), in the context of the lawsuit between Apple and the publisher of the game. Fortnite, Epic Games.
However, it did not consider that the manufacturer of the iPhone exercised an illegal monopoly. “Apple does not have a monopoly on the market for transactions in mobile games”, ruled Judge Yvonne Rogers. Corn “Apple’s behavior is anti-competitive” when the California giant prevents developers from redirecting consumers to their own websites and payment methods, she added.
Epic Games, like many other small and large publishers of mobile apps, accuses Apple of abusing its dominant position, taking too high commissions on customer spending and forcing them to have the App Store as a mandatory intermediary between them. and their users.
“In the end: Epic won”
In August 2020, the publisher had offered its players to buy the virtual currency of Fortnite cheaper if they went directly through their payment system, and not through Apple’s, which charges a 30% commission on these transactions.
The apple brand immediately removed the game from the App Store, a must-have on iPhones and iPads for downloading apps. The followers of the title of battle royale (“Shooting and survival”) who only have Apple mobile devices have not had access to updates since. Epic Games then filed a complaint against the Californian group for abuse of a dominant position.
“Apple has “won” by not being considered a monopoly, but Epic has “won” the right to direct players to the Epic Store [son propre magasin] as an alternative payment method. In the end: Epic won ”, To tweeted Michael Pachter, analyst at Wedbush. Following this decision, Apple lost 2.8% on the stock market around 6.30 p.m.
www.lemonde.fr