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Epic Games Expands Fortnite Legal Dispute With Apple to the UK

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Epic Games has submitted a complaint to the United Kingdom's Competition Appeal Tribunal, expanding its Fortnite legal battle with both Apple and Google to another country.

fortnite_apple_featured.jpg

According to Bloomberg, Epic Games is claiming that Apple's decision to remove Fortnite from the App Store was unlawful, and the company is aiming to get Apple to allow Fortnite back into the British App Store.

In a statement provided to MacRumors, Epic Games said that the filing with the Competition Appeal Tribunal is "an important argument" that it is making on behalf of consumers and developers in the UK.
Epic Games has launched legal proceedings against Apple and Google in the United Kingdom, expanding its fight to advance fair digital platform practices for consumers and developers.

The legal proceedings, filed in London’s Competition Appeal Tribunal, allege the conduct of both Apple and Google in their respective app stores is an abuse of a dominant position and in breach of the UK’s competition laws, substantially reducing competition in app distribution and payment processes.

We believe that this is an important argument to make on behalf of consumers and developers in the UK and around the world who are impacted by Apple and Google’s misuse of market power. We look forward to making our case on January 21.

Epic is not seeking damages from Apple or Google in the UK, Australia or the US, it is simply seeking fair access and competition that will benefit all consumers.
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Similar arguments from Epic Games have not worked in the U.S., where Fortnite and Apple have been embroiled in an increasingly bitter legal fight since August. In the U.S., Epic Games asked for a preliminary injunction to keep Fortnite on the App Store, but was denied because its removal was caused by Epic Games and could have been reversed if Epic Games followed the App Store rules.

Epic Games in August added a Fortnite update that allowed customers to purchase in-game currency directly from Epic, skirting Apple's in-app purchases. That is against Apple's rules, and the move led Apple to pull the app from the App Store.

After that, Epic Games filed a planned lawsuit against Apple, and Apple ultimately terminated Epic Games' developer account. Fortnite has not been available on iOS devices since August, and as Epic refuses to comply with the App Store rules, there is no path for it to return to the App Store.

Apple and Epic will face off in court in July 2021, and at the current time, both sides are preparing for the upcoming legal fight.

Article Link: Epic Games Expands Fortnite Legal Dispute With Apple to the UK
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/01/14/epic-games-apple-fortnite-uk-filing/
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All this really means is that Epic has accepted they are not going to win in the US and are trying a more sympathetic country. It could work, here in the UK the courts are less supportive of big companies like Apple.

Realityck said:
What will that achieve? What makes the British App Store any different?
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If they win it adds pressure. Will it make any difference? Not likely other than it could mean UK customers will have to be allowed to install Fortnite.
 
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LeeW said:
All this really means is that Epic has accepted they are not going to win in the US and are trying a more sympathetic country. It could work, here in the UK the courts are less supportive of big companies like Apple.



If they win it adds pressure. Will it make any difference? Not likely other than it could mean UK customers will have to be allowed to install Fortnite.
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It means their users can trick the internet into believing they're in the UK, get to the UK app store, and install Fortnite. Literally, this is the only advantage I can see from judge shopping here, which is what I believe is happening.

They lost in the USA. Now they're fighting to just stay alive, iThink, as losing iOS means a massive market just disappeared (a 15-25% drop in even potential sales has been enough to make companies close forever).
 
It seems to me that Fortnite's ship has sailed and this is just another publicity stunt.
When the US case first hit the headlines, all my friends who used to play Fortnite just laughed. They'd all moved on to other games.
EPIC was fully aware of the T's & C's of the App Store after all, they had been using it for several years before all this blew up. This will be worth trying to get into the public gallery to watch.
 
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Epic has NO chance of winning in Court.

The ONLY App Devs that have ANY chance of winning, either in Court OR in the Court of Public Opinion, is if it can be proven that Apple Intentionally Suppressed Third-Party App Innovation for their own benefit !

If it can be proven, they will lose control & ownership of the App Store !

And for such cases, I believe they will say "We didn't know".

And for such cases, it will come down to How they Comp the victimized App Devs for their (for lack of a more appropriate word to use in this setting) Oversight.

Make NO mistake, "Plausible Deniability" is a Term very-likely used often in certain High-Level meetings at Apple !
 
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Ngl, I completely forgot about Epic with more important tantrums in DC recently.

neuropsychguy said:
"Apple's decision to remove Fortnite from the App Store was unlawful"

That argument is not going to win. It's about as unlawful as Lowes deciding to stop selling a particular brand of rake.
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And more especially because it was Epic Game's own premeditated doing that caused this situation in the first place.
 
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