Epic Games Appeals Apple Antitrust Lawsuit

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Epic Games, which lost an antitrust lawsuit against Apple App Store, immediately filed an appeal with the court.

According to the AP News on the 12th (local time), Epic Games announced that it had submitted an appeal to the U.S. District Court in Oakland, California on the same day. Epic Games stated, "We will appeal the court's ruling and all orders resulting from that ruling."

Earlier, the court ordered Epic Games to pay at least $4 million in damages, a portion of the revenue earned through its own payment system, ruling that Epic Games' establishment of its own payment system in defiance of Apple was a breach of contract.

The court did not accept Epic Games' claim that Apple's App Store operation method, which was the biggest issue in this lawsuit, violated antitrust laws.

In the 185-page ruling, the court found no elements of monopolistic behavior such as hindering innovation or creating entry barriers in the market, and ruled in favor of Apple.

Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of Oakland stated, "Considering federal and state antitrust laws, Apple cannot be concluded to be a monopoly," and added, "Success is not illegal."

With the court ruling that Apple is not a monopoly, Apple can continue other app store businesses besides in-app payments as it currently does.

However, the court ruled that Apple's forced in-app payment is unfair and ordered Apple to allow external payment links within apps within 90 days.

Apple has so far forced the use of its internal App Store system for paid content payments, collecting up to a 30% commission in the process.

The court stated in the ruling that Apple's blocking of external payments hides important information from consumers and unlawfully suppresses consumer choice.

As a result, app developers can now introduce their own payment systems, and Apple will face a hit to the revenue it earned from in-app payments.

This trial began in August last year when the U.S. game company Epic Games filed a lawsuit claiming that Apple's App Store operation practices violated antitrust laws.

With this ruling, Apple can shed the stigma of being a monopoly, and Epic Games achieved the outcome of allowing external app payments, but since both sides are dissatisfied with the lawsuit results, it is expected that it may take several years to reach a final conclusion.