Epic Games

The ongoing Epic Games v. Apple trial continues to provide insight into Apple's App Store processes, with documents today offering up details on the number of apps submitted to the ‌App Store‌ and rejected by Apple's review processes. Apple received an average of five million app submissions per year between 2017 and 2019, and between 33 and 35 percent of apps submitted were rejected by...

Today is the fourth day of the Epic Games v. Apple legal battle, and documents shared in the trial continue to give us insight into the App Store and Apple's business practices. ‌App Store‌ Vice President Matt Fischer is on the stand answering questions from Apple and Epic lawyers, and one of the emails shared as evidence confirms that Apple has established special deals with major app...

As the Epic Games v. Apple trial progresses into its third day, Apple's internal documents and communications with various companies are continuing to surface, giving us some insight into the dealings that Apple has had around the App Store. Back in December 2018, Netflix stopped offering in-app subscription options for new or resubscribing members and instead began requiring them to sign up ...

Apple's legal battle with Epic Games is continuing on, and during the second day of the trial, ‌Epic Games‌' CEO Tim Sweeney continued his testimony against Apple. Sweeney was grilled by Apple's lawyers, and made several points seemingly favorable to Apple. In addition to mentioning how he prefers Apple's iPhone and values Apple's privacy policies that he's aiming to dismantle, Sweeney...

As Epic Games prepares for its upcoming bench trial with Apple, the company has today published depositions that it conducted with several executives, including current iTunes chief Eddy Cue and former software engineering chief Scott Forstall. As someone involved with the App Store since its inception, Cue was asked many questions about how the store runs, and he was also queried on whether ...

On Monday, May 3 Apple and Epic will meet in court as their bench trial kicks off over the dispute that Epic started last summer by defying the App Store in-app purchase rules. In preparation for the legal battle, Apple today filed the written testimonies of its witnesses with the court, and if approved, it serves the same function as actual trial testimony, providing insight into the...

Prior to its upcoming bench trial with Epic Games, Apple filed hundreds of pages of documents covering findings of fact, which include some interesting and previously unknown tidbits about ‌Epic Games‌. ‌Epic Games‌ planned its rebellion against Apple for at least two years ahead of when it opted to brazenly violate Apple's App Store rules, with Apple's ‌App Store‌ fees at the heart of the...

In a recent interview with the Toronto Star, Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke about a wide variety of topics, ranging from App Tracking Transparency to Apple's ongoing legal battle over App Store policies with Fortnite creator Epic Games. Notably, Cook said that Epic Games' desire for Apple to let developers offer their own payment systems in apps "would make the App Store a flea market":At the...

Epic Games and Apple are involved in a highly public lawsuit in the United States, but Epic has also sued Apple in other countries, including Australia, in an attempt to boost its chances of getting a favorable ruling. Things aren't quite going Epic's way, however, as the justice overseeing the case today decided that he's going to let the two companies battle it out in the United States. ...

Ahead of its upcoming bench trial against Epic Games, Apple today filed 500 pages of documents covering findings of fact and conclusions of law, which basically summarizes the information exchanged between Apple and Epic, presents the relevant facts to the judge, and argues for the logical conclusions that should be drawn when law is applied to the case. Apple sticks to many of the talking...

Facebook and Apple are squabbling over document requests in the ongoing Epic v. Apple legal battle, according to a new discovery letter filed with the court today. Facebook is involved because Facebook executive Vivek Sharma is set to testify on behalf of Epic. Apple wants a "limited set of documents" that are needed for a fair cross examination of Sharma, who plans to testify about Apple's...

Apple and Epic Games lawyers are continuing to plan for their upcoming May 3 bench trial, and in a preparatory conference held today, the judge overseeing the case said that attendance will be limited due to the ongoing global health crisis (via Law360). U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers has been planning for an in-person trial because she believes that the case is significant...

Apple has told an Australian court that Epic Games' legal challenge against the App Store is "self-serving," and that all the software company aims to do is "redefine the terms of access" that it's always been subject to on Apple's platforms. As reported by The Guardian, Apple and ‌Epic Games‌ on Tuesday went head-to-head in a federal court in Sydney, Australia, following Epic's decision to...

Apple today submitted its witness list for its upcoming bench trial with Epic Games, and several Apple executives will be testifying, including Apple CEO Tim Cook, Apple Fellow Phil Schiller, and Apple Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi. Cook will be directly examined for one hour, with a one hour cross examination also included. Federighi will testify for two...

Lawyers for Epic Games and Apple today participated in a management conference with Judge Yvonne Gonzalez to hammer out the details of an upcoming bench trial, which is now confirmed to take place on May 3. Judge Gonzalez is planning to hold an in-person trial that will require all witnesses to travel to Northern California to answer questions before the court and the judge. She believes...

As part of its ongoing legal battle, Epic Games is now seeking testimony from Apple's former iOS software chief, Scott Forstall. Forstall left Apple in 2013, in what was widely reported at the time to have been a forced exit, largely because of the botched early launch of Apple Maps. Since then, Forstall has kept a very low profile and has only made a few media appearances in the past few...

Epic Games will not be able to expand its ongoing Fortnite fight with Apple in the UK after a judge said the case could not continue in London, reports Bloomberg. In January, ‌Epic Games‌ submitted a complaint to the United Kingdom's Competition Appeal Tribunal in an effort to get the Fortnite app back on the App Store in the UK. ‌Epic Games‌ argued that Apple's decision to remove Fortnite...

Epic Games has filed an antitrust complaint against Apple in the European Union, broadening its legal battle against the tech giant by attempting to appeal to the EU's differing interpretation of antitrust issues compared to those in the United States (via The Wall Street Journal). Last September, ‌Epic Games‌‌‌ added a Fortnite update that allowed customers to purchase in-game currency direc...

In a wide-ranging interview with CNN Business, Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, says that his company spent months preparing its lawsuit against Apple, which is internally codenamed "Project Liberty." Epic launched an all-out assault against Apple after it removed Fortnite from the App Store in August after the app implemented a direct payment method for in-app purchases. App Store policy...

A judge presiding over preparatory hearings in the Apple vs. Epic Games court case has ruled that Apple CEO Tim Cook must attend a seven-hour long deposition to testify about how the company views App Store competition, reports Gizmodo. U.S. magistrate Judge Thomas S. Hixon reportedly settled on the seven-hour deposition after Epic Games proposed eight hours to depose Cook and Apple...