What you need to know
- Epic Games will not be able to pursue an antitrust complaint against Apple in the UK.
- An antitrust tribunal ruled that the U.S. was a more appropriate forum.
Epic Games will not be permitted to pursue an antitrust case against Apple in the UK.
From Reuters:
The UK antitrust tribunal ruled on Monday that Epic Games, the creator of popular game Fortnite, will not be allowed to pursue its case against Apple Inc in the United Kingdom over its App Store payment system and control over app downloads...The UK tribunal said Epic's suit against Alphabet Inc's Google could move forward, but deemed that the United States would be a better forum for its case against Apple.
In a statement, Epic Games said it would "reconsider pursuing its case" against Apple following the resolution of its lawsuit against Apple in the U.S. A similar complaint against Google from the Fortnite-maker can proceed, however.
Epic filed its complaint against Apple with UK authorities in January:
Epic Games today pushed its battle with Apple a step further by filing a complaint with the UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal in an attempt to get Fortnite back into the App Store on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
In a statement to iMore at the time, Epic said that legal proceedings filed with London's Competition Appeal Tribunal allege that 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." Epic has filed similar complaints in Australia, and more recently the EU:
Epic Games has today announced that it has filed an antitrust complaint against Apple with the European Union.In a press release today the company stated:Epic Games today announced it has filed an antitrust complaint against Apple in the European Union ('EU'), expanding the company's fight to advance fairer digital platform practices for developers and consumers.
