(Reuters) – Apple Inc. said it intends to face stiff competition in the video game market to defend itself against antitrust allegations by Fortnite maker Epic Games, the iPhone maker said on Thursday.
Epic sued Apple last year in California federal court, claiming the 15% to 30% fees Apple charges for using its in-app payment systems and Apple’s long-standing practice of exercising control over applications that can be installed on its devices. anti-competitive behavior. The dispute arose after Epic tried to implement its own in-app payment system in the popular “Fortnite” game, and Apple later banned the game from the App Store.
The case is due to be heard in May in Oakland, California, by US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who will have to rule on the notion of “market” which is the correct one to analyze Apple’s moves for signs of anti-competitive conduct.
Epic has framed its case around the idea that Apple iPhones, with an installed base of over 1 billion users, represent their own distinct market for software developers. Epic claimed that Apple has monopoly power over that market because it decides how users can install software on devices and says it abuses that power by forcing developers to deliver their software through the App Store, where developers are subject to fees. for some transactions.
In a case that Apple intended to make on Thursday, the company rejected this notion and said that the appropriate market to analyze the case is the video game transaction market, which includes platforms such as Nintendo Co Ltd and Microsoft Corp’s Xbox game consoles. , which also limits software that can run on their hardware and charge developers.
Apple said it intends to argue that consumers have many options for how to conduct video game transactions, including purchasing virtual chips from game developers on other platforms, such as Windows PCs and using chips on iPhone, no fees for the game developer.
Stephen Nellis’ report to San Francisco; Editing by Leslie Adler