Steph Deschamps / October 9, 2021
Apple on Friday appealed the verdict in the lawsuit against video game publisher Epic Games, asking for a stay of a court ruling, which allows app developers to offer an alternative payment system to that of the iPhone maker.
The technology giant is asking for a stay of the measure, pending a final decision, which could take years. A judge will consider the issue in November. A U.S. judge had, on September 10, imposed on Apple to give more freedom to publishers, which would allow them to circumvent the commission levied by the technology giant. Apple could no longer require developers to use its payment system within their applications, and therefore pay a commission, had decided Yvonne Rogers, a judge in Oakland (California) in charge of the dispute with the developer. However, she had largely rejected the accusations of monopoly against Apple and denounced by Epic, which was good news for the giant technology accused of all sides of violations of competition law.
She had considered that the iPhone manufacturer was not in a situation of illegal monopoly: Apple does not have a monopoly on the market for transactions in mobile games.
Epic Games, the developer of the game Fortnite, which had been calling for such a measure for a year, had appealed this decision. Its boss, Tim Sweeney, promised to continue to fight for fair competition between payment methods within apps.