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Two young people playing Fortnite.
Epic Games, developer of the popular video game Fortnite, has filed a lawsuit against Apple with the European Commission for abuse of a dominant position through the use of "anti-competitive restrictions" in the iPhone ecosystem, as reported by the company this Wednesday in a statement.
Epic assures that Apple, through "a series of well-designed anti-competitive restrictions", has not only damaged, but has "completely eliminated" competition in the application distribution and payment processing segments in the iOS ecosystem, the system operating that Apple uses on its mobile devices.
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"Apple uses its control over the iOS ecosystem to benefit itself, while blocking other competitors and its conduct is an abuse of a dominant position and a breach of the competition law of the European Union," the company stressed. .
The lawsuit before Brussels joins the litigation that Epic Games has initiated in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia.
“What is at stake is the future of mobile platforms.
Consumers have the right to install applications from sources of their choice and developers have the right to compete in a fair market, ”said Epic Games Founder and CEO Tim Sweeney.
Spotify precedent
The conflict between Epic Games and Apple began several months ago, when the creator of Fortnite enabled in the iOS version of the game a payment platform other than Apple itself, which allowed it to skip the 30% commission that Apple imposes on the transactions.
Given this, which is not allowed by Apple's application store policies, the Cupertino company blocked Fortnite updates.
Likewise, Epic Games has not been able to publish its digital video game store on iOS because it has not received authorization from Apple.
The company has accused the iPhone maker that this is also anticompetitive conduct because Apple itself launched its Apple Arcade service, which is a subscription and distribution service for mobile video games.
"This is much bigger than Epic versus Apple, it is about whether consumers and developers can do business together directly on mobile platforms or if they are forced to use monopoly channels against their wishes and interests," said Epic Games.
The Epic lawsuit is not the only one facing Apple due to its restrictions on iOS.
In 2019, Spotify filed a similar lawsuit against the company for unfair competition, as the 30% commission forced prices to be raised above the Apple Music service.
