Epic Games expands its fight against Apple to Europe. The game developer has filed an antitrust complaint against Apple with the European Commission. He is currently already researching Apple.
Epic Games says it has filed a complaint with the European Commission’s competition office. The complaint focuses specifically on the rules that Apple applies for its App Store. “Through several carefully crafted anti-competitive restrictions,
Apple has not only damaged but destroyed competition in the distribution and payment process of apps,” Epic wrote in the complaint. According to Epic, this is a violation of European competition law.
The central question is whether Apple has an unfair monopoly position through the App Store. “What is at stake here is the entire future of mobile platforms,” Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said in a statement. “This touches on whether consumers and developers can do business together directly on mobile platforms, or whether they are forced to use monopolies that go against their wishes.”
In contrast to other cases, Epic does not want to enforce compensation through the European case. “We are only looking for fair access and competition that will benefit consumers and developers,” the company said.
It’s another step in Epic Games’ long battle against Apple. That battle started last year when Epic Games added its own payment system to Fortnite on iOS. Apple then removed Fortnite from the App Store . Since then, Epic has filed lawsuits against Apple and filed complaints with regulators.
A lawsuit is currently pending against Apple in the US , but Epic has also filed complaints in Australia and the UK, where regulators are now investigating Apple’s practices.
The question is whether the complaint adds much. The European Commission has been conducting independent research into the rules surrounding the App Store since June last year . This happened, among other things, after various developers had expressed negative views about this, although the EC investigation is not a direct result of an official complaint.
