Epic Games and Apple Inc. have been at war for the past one year and things don’t seem to settle between the two companies. The Fortnite maker has recently announced on Tuesday that it has filed another complaint against Apple Inc. with Britain’s Competition regulator in support of its ongoing investigation of the iPhone maker’s anti-competitive behaviour.
The main point of discussion to which Epic Games has a problem is Apple’s terms and conditions for app developers. Epic Games has accused the iPhone maker of charging a large percentage of commission from app developers to feature their application on Apple’s App Store. Epic Games has a problem with this and the issue began with Fortnite’s subscription-based in-app purchases for which Apple had barred Fortnite from its App Store for violating its terms of service.
However, it is not the first time that Apple has been accused of such practices. There is a long list of developers who have initiated the same by filing complaints against the world’s most popular technology company as it requires app developers to use the company’s payment systems for in-app purchases with an additional commission charged between 15% to 30% which is a very high amount.
When Epic Games began to revolt by introducing their own payment system instead of using Apple’s in-app purchases, the iPhone maker instantly removed Fortnite from its App Store. Apple Inc. says that Epic Games has been indulging in such practices to avoid Apple’s 30% commission fee which is against their terms of service and guidelines.
However, Epic Games has continuously engaged Apple by filing multiple lawsuits across the world in different jurisdictions since the dispute began and recently, it has filed a complaint in the United kingdoms.
As mentioned in a report by Reuters, Apple Inc. spokesperson says that it is not very surprising to see Epic Games push their agenda before the United Kingdoms Competition and Markets Authority. He added that the company has previously seen them use the same playbook around the world.
Epic Games must have really pissed Apple off by filing lawsuits in the United States and Australia. As mentioned by Reuters, Fortnite maker has also filed an antitrust complaint against Apple in the European Union as well.
Tim Sweeney, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Epic Games is a vocal critic of Apple’s monopolistic policies and says that its practices lead to artificially inflated costs for the end consumer as well as the developers and this stifle innovation among developers as well.
However, Apple thinks that by operating with a different set of rules from different jurisdictions is foul play and it is wrong.
