Mike Scarcella
(Reuters) – iPhone maker Apple on Friday rejected a court order regulating its App Store and urged a California federal judge to reject a bid by Fortnite developer Epic Games to hold it liable.
Apple made its case to U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers (NYSE:) in Oakland, who presided over Epic’s 2020 lawsuit accusing Apple of violating antitrust laws by tightly controlling how consumers download apps and pay for transactions within them. .
Apple’s lawsuit criticized Epic’s attempt to make “Apple tools and technologies free to developers.”
Epic, he said, wanted the court to “control Apple’s micro-operations in a way that enhances Epic’s profitability.”
Epic declined to comment. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the dispute, which is part of a long-running battle between the two companies.
Epic largely lost its case against Apple, but Rogers in 2021 ordered Apple to give developers greater freedom to provide app users with alternative ways to pay for digital goods.
The US Supreme Court in January refused to hear Apple’s appeal of the injunction.
Epic said in a court filing last month that Cupertino, California-based Apple was in “clear violation” of the injunction. It pointed out that Apple charges developers a 27% commission on some purchases, which the video game maker said makes links to alternative payment options “commercially unviable.”
Epic also claims that Apple has prevented some apps from informing users about other ways to pay for goods.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:), Microsoft (NASDAQ:), X and Elon Musk’s Match Group (NASDAQ:) echoed Epic’s arguments last month, telling Rogers that Apple was “clearly violating” the court order.
In a similar case that Epic brought against Alphabet (NASDAQ:)-owned Google, a judge in San Francisco is expected to issue a separate injunction this year involving the Google Play Store.
The case is Epic Games Inc v Apple Inc (NASDAQ:), US District Court, Northern District of California, No. 20-05640.