Apple/Google v Epic - App store shenanigans

[pmbug]

An appeals court on Monday mostly sided with Apple over its App Store rules in a suit with Epic Games.

The decision signals that Apple's control over the App Store and the fees it charges likely won't significantly change as a result of an ongoing legal challenge by Epic Games.
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Epic sued Apple after the game company introduced its own payment system into Fortnite, which broke Apple's rules and ultimately got the company banned from the App Store. It culminated in a weekslong trial two years ago in California where Apple CEO Tim Cook and Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney testified.

Monday's ruling in the Ninth Circuit Court affirmed the decision that primarily found Apple did not violate antitrust law by banning competing app marketplaces on iPhones.
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However, the iPhone maker did lose one claim and had to allow developers to place links inside their apps so users could make purchases outside the App Store.

The appeals court did not overturn that decision, which was related to California law, and is the one claim that Apple says was not decided in its favor. Whether the company is forced to allow links to outside payments will be determined in possible future hearings.

Apple said in its statement that it was considering further action, which could include an appeal to the Supreme Court. ...

Apple declares 'resounding victory' after decision reached in Epic Games appeal

An appeals court on Monday mostly sided with Apple over its App Store rules in a suit with Epic Games.

www.cnbc.com

Apple is not a free market zone.

 

[pmbug]

Different case, but related:

Google is headed back to court for its second antitrust trial in two months, this time in defense of its Android Play Store.

While Google continues to argue against monopoly claims brought by the Department of Justice and a bipartisan group of states in Washington, D.C., District Court, the company now has to simultaneously face off against Epic Games in a federal court in San Francisco.

The trial involving Epic, which begins Monday, revolves around Google's treatment of third-party mobile developers, and will be closely watched by Apple, which operates the rival iPhone App Store. Both companies have been accused by developers of taking an unfair cut of revenue from in-app payments and for making it harder for app creators to communicate with their customers.
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For the Epic suit, there's one key difference between what Google faces and the case against Apple. Google allows “sideloading,” or the ability to install software off the web, which Apple forbids.

Epic plans to argue that, even with that capability, Google abuses its dominant market position and makes it hard for consumers to get access to apps, according to a person familiar with the matter.
...

More:

Google faces off with Epic Games as it enters its second antitrust trial in two months

Google's trial against Epic follows the game publisher's lawsuit against Apple, which went to court in 2021 and was appealed earlier this year

www.cnbc.com

 

[Goldhedge]

Sounds like putting GM parts on a Ford.

 

[pmbug]

Not quite.

Google maintains an App store for Android mobile devices. Apple maintains an App store for Apple mobile devices. Companies that want to distribute their apps on either platform have to contract with Google/Apple.

Epic Games contracted with both to distribute their Fortnite game. The Fortnite game has an in-game store to let players purchase in-game items. Google/Apple contracts forbid/restrict apps from selling anything outside of Google/Apple's app stores. That restraint wouldn't be a big deal if Google/Apple didn't have an effective monopoly on their respective platforms, but they do.

 

[Casey Jones]

Sounds like putting GM parts on a Ford.

Not quite.

Google maintains an App store for Android mobile devices. Apple maintains an App store for Apple mobile devices. Companies that want to distribute their apps on either platform have to contract with Google/Apple.

Epic Games contracted with both to distribute their Fortnite game. The Fortnite game has an in-game store to let players purchase in-game items. Google/Apple contracts forbid/restrict apps from selling anything outside of Google/Apple's app stores. That restraint wouldn't be a big deal if Google/Apple didn't have an effective monopoly on their respective platforms, but they do.

The trouble, as I see it, is that these tech companies, controlled by autistic geeks, don't understand the responsibilities that various businesses have to their customers.

Ford, for example, has no business telling its customers WHERE they can take their Ford cars. Or what roads, or kinds of roads, they take. If there were a device installed to shut off Fords, dead, on the road, if they crossed into Mexico - or Florida - people would be outraged.

But this is essentially the moral plank that Apple management, post-Jobs, has taken. It not only wants to keep its code secret and closed-source (understandable if perhaps unwise) but it worries about what KINDS of business or activities various suppliers, of apps, peripherals, even media programs, are available even if only listed.

Not hosting pornographic material is one thing - that's generally-understood "decency." But using nebulous terms like "Hate" to ban movies, books, podcasts that are personally disagreeable to the sodomite moralist, Timmy Cook...that's a bridge too far.

And it's why I'll have nothing to do with that company and the autistic, morally-twisted deviants running it.

Unfortunately, others in the tech industry don't have that choice.

 

[pmbug]

Google’s legal defeat at the hands of Fortnite maker Epic Games Inc. threatens to roil an app store duopoly with Apple Inc. that generates close to $200 billion a year and dictates how billions of consumers use mobile devices.

The loss — handed down by a San Francisco jury on Monday — is a blow to the two companies’ business model in apps, where they charge commissions of as much as 30% to software developers who typically have few other options. ...
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Though Apple won a similar case against Epic in 2021, that ruling was made by a single judge. The nature of the Google suit — where a jury sided unanimously with Epic — let actual consumers weigh in on the world of smartphone apps. In under four hours of deliberations, they found that Google had engaged in anticompetitive conduct, harmed Epic and illegally forced its own billing system on developers.
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/oth...ns-200-billion-app-store-industry/ar-AA1lnNyf

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The judge also ruled that Google had destroyed relevant trial evidence, and told the jury to weigh that behavior in its decision. Here’s Sean Hollister in the Verge on what happened after the jury heard the testimony and judicial instructions:

After just a few hours of deliberation, the jury unanimously answered yes to every question put before them — that Google has monopoly power in the Android app distribution markets and in-app billing services markets, that Google did anticompetitive things in those markets, and that Epic was injured by that behavior. They decided Google has an illegal tie between its Google Play app store and its Google Play Billing payment services, too, and that its distribution agreement, Project Hug deals with game developers and deals with OEMs were all anticompetitive.

It’s a long and winding road for Epic. The firm lost the Apple case, which is on appeal, but got the Google case to a jury, along with several other plaintiffs. Nearly every other firm challenging Google gradually dropped out of the case, getting special deals from the search giant in return for abandoning their claims. But Sweeney was righteous, and believed that Google helped ruined the internet. He didn’t ask for money or a special deal, instead seeking to have Judge James Donato force Google to make good on its “broken promise,” which he characterized as “an open, competitive Android ecosystem for all users and industry participants.”

Specifically, Sweeney asked for the right for firms to have their own app stores, and the ability to use their own billing systems. Basically, he wants to crush Google’s control over the Android phone system. And I suspect he just did. ...

BOOM: Google Loses Antitrust Case

Search giant Google has lost its first antitrust case in a San Francisco jury trial. The breakup of Big Tech begins.

www.thebignewsletter.com

 

[searcher]

On December 18, 2023, the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (collectively, the “Agencies”) jointly released the 2023 Merger Guidelines, which describe factors and frameworks the Agencies often utilize when reviewing mergers and acquisitions. The 2023 Merger Guidelines reflect the culmination of a nearly two-year process undertaken by the Agencies that involved soliciting feedback from the public and staff in a variety of ways including through listening sessions, written comments, and workshops.

The 2023 Merger Guidelines are a non-binding statement that provides transparency on aspects of the deliberations the Agencies undertake in individual cases under the antitrust laws. The Agencies will continue to make decisions in particular matters based on the law and the facts applicable to each case.

2023 Merger Guidelines

www.justice.gov

 

[searcher]

Google to pay $700 mln to US consumers, states in Play store settlement​

Dec 18 (Reuters) - Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google has agreed to pay $700 million and to allow for greater competition in its Play app store, according to the terms of an antitrust settlement with U.S. states and consumers disclosed on Monday in a San Francisco federal court.

Google will pay $630 million into a settlement fund for consumers and $70 million into a fund that will be used by states, according to the settlement, which still requires a judge's final approval.

More:

https://www.reuters.com/legal/google-pay-700-mln-us-consumers-states-play-store-settlement-2023-12-19/

 

[pmbug]

Regarding the case mentioned in the OP:

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear an antitrust challenge by Epic Games, maker of the popular video game "Fortnite," to the way Apple runs its lucrative App Store, handing the software company a setback in its lengthy legal battle against the iPhone maker.

The justices turned away Epic's appeal of a lower court's decision that Apple's App Store policies limiting how software is distributed and paid for do not violate federal antitrust laws. The justices also decided not to hear Apple's appeal of the same decision, which barred certain App Store rules.

US Supreme Court snubs Epic Games legal battle with Apple

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear an antitrust challenge by Epic Games, maker of the popular video game "Fortnite," to the way Apple runs its lucrative App Store, handing the software company a setback in its lengthy legal battle against the iPhone maker. The justices turned...

finance.yahoo.com

 

[pmbug]

Apple's long legal battle with Epic Games over app store checkout policies has entered a new phase after Apple said it would charge a commission of up to 27% for non-Apple payment providers, a move that immediately drew threats of fresh legal action.

Apple's new policy for developers using non-Apple payment processors for app store transactions follows an earlier policy that required developers to use Apple's payment system, with an interchange-style fee of up to 35%. Apple announced the new policy last week, around the same time that the U.S. Supreme Court declined Apple's appeal of lower-court rulings in the Apple/Epic case that required Apple to open App Store payments to outside processors.
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Epic Games immediately cried foul over the new double-digit fee, with Epic CEO Tim Sweeney issuing a series of social media posts contending that the 27% fee "kills price competition. Developers can't offer digital items more cheaply on the web after paying a third-party payment processor 3-6% and paying this new 27% Apple Tax." Sweeney said Epic will "contest Apple's bad-faith compliance plan in U.S. District Court."

Spotify also criticized the new fee, saying Apple has demonstrated "that they will stop at nothing to protect the profits they exact on the backs of developers and consumers under their app store monopoly." ...

How Apple's new payment fees portend more legal fights

The technology company will allow outside processors, but plans to charge a commission. Epic Games vows to challenge the move in court.

www.americanbanker.com

Apple gonna apple.

 

[searcher]

US takes on Apple in antitrust lawsuit​

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday sued Apple, the first major antitrust effort against the iPhone maker by the Biden administration, alleging it monopolized smartphone markets.

Apple joins a list of major tech companies sued by U.S. regulators, including Alphabet's Google, Meta Platforms and Amazon.com across the administrations of both former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden.

"Consumers should not have to pay higher prices because companies violate the antitrust laws," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. "If left unchallenged, Apple will only continue to strengthen its smartphone monopoly."

The Justice Department alleges that Apple uses its market power to get more money from consumers, developers, content creators, artists, publishers, small businesses and merchants.

More:

MSN

 

[Casey Jones]

Once they find they can attack businesses...they won't stop at honest businesses that don't toe the political demands of the Deep State. They'll start attacking their own, just because they can.

It's what they DO.

So now they're going after the Cupertino Fruit Company...and after all that the Head Fruit has done for the Circle-D Party....

 

[nickndfl]

Maybe Apple is supporting Israel or not supporting Ukraine? It's all political nonsense and I am not an Apple user, but the whole lawsuit smells.

If they can do it to Trump and Apple, when it comes time to mask up again those that do not will be sued to oblivion and then sent to FEMA camps for re-education.

 

[pmbug]

A U.S. judge on Monday ordered Alphabet's Google to overhaul its mobile app business to give Android users more options to download apps and to pay for transactions within them, following a jury verdict last year for “Fortnite” maker Epic Games.
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More:

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/tec...-open-up-app-store-to-competition/ar-AA1rQHlj