Cameron Moore

A judge overseeing a landmark competition case against Apple and Google has questioned whether Apple’s US lawyers wrongly used court submissions in Australia to put pressure on Epic Games in Europe and justify temporarily removing its developer account. 

Google offered Fortnite creator Epic Games $200 million and proposed to acquire equity in the company to prevent it from opening its own app store with exclusive content that could compete with the search giant’s Play Store, a court has heard.

Google is nearing “monopoly levels” with its exploitation of the Android brand to prevent other app stores from competing with its Play Store, the maker of the Fortnite video game has said in a landmark competition trial.

Apple has made exceptional profits skimming a 30 per cent commission from sales on its app store, dubbed by the tech giant’s CEO an “economic miracle”, Epic Games has said on the first day of trial in a landmark competition case.

An Australian court will get a chance to weigh in on whether Apple and Google violated their dominant position in the app marketplace by requiring developers to use their payment systems or face a 30 per cent fee, when trial kicks off Monday in Fortnite game maker Epic Games’ case and two related class actions against the tech giants.

The competition regulator will not appeal a tribunal ruling that set aside its decision to block the $4.9 billion merger between ANZ and Suncorp, but promised it will continue to scrutinise the banking industry.

A judge overseeing an appeal in a carriage dispute in a class action against Jaguar Land Rover over allegedly defective diesel filters has said he prefers the approach of the Supreme Court of Victoria to such fights, saying firms should not revise their bids multiple times.

A judge has ordered soft class closure ahead of mediation in a class action against five major banks over alleged foreign exchange rate-rigging, saying the applicant’s subjective view on what will assist mediation should not be imposed on the banks.

A judge has questioned the applicant’s opposition to soft class closure in a class action accusing five major banks of rate-rigging, a measure the banks say could save “tens of millions” in legal expenses. 

The ACCC’s rejection of a $4.9 billion merger between ANZ and Suncorp was hardly surprising given the concentrated nature of the home loans market, but the competition regulator faced an uphill battle in having the decision upheld, an expert says.