Epic Games says Apple’s “unrestrained market power” is artificially jacking up the price of phone and tablet apps and suppressing competition and innovation in a key gateway to the Australian economy, according to the Australian Financial Review.
The game maker told the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission that Apple’s stranglehold on iPhone and iPad app distribution and billing is forcing app developers to pay a 30 per cent “Apple tax” on all the games they sell, when the true commission should be closer to the single-digit fees charged in financial transactions “that exist in an open and competitive environment.”
This is all part of an ongoing legal battle between Apple and Epic. On Aug. 13,2020, Epic Games announced that it had introduced a new direct payment option in the Fortnite app for iPhone and iPad, allowing players to purchase 1000 V-Bucks for US$7.99 rather than $9.99 through Apple’s in-app purchase mechanism. Shortly thereafter, Apple removed the gamer from the App Store for violating store polices and followed up by shutting down the company’s developer account. Epic immediately filed a lawsuit against Apple in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
In September 2020 Apple filed a countersuit to stop the game maker from using its own payment system for Fortnite. Apple also accused Epic of theft and sought e
xtra monetary damages beyond breach of contract.
