Elle Nikou Madalin

Epic Games has taken aim at Google for the “untruthful evidence” of its witnesses in the game maker’s competition case against the tech giant, as well as its failure to call senior executives to the stand to defend itself. 

Epic Games’ case alleging Google ran its Play Store anti-competitively is “significantly more ambitious” than the Fortnite game maker’s claims against Apple, according to the search giant, which says its restraints are “more flexible and less draconian” than the iPhone maker’s.

Hitting back at claims that its App Store stifles competition, Apple has told a trial that app developers have myriad ways of maximising profits without paying it a commission, noting Epic Games made US$3.8 billion from in-game currency V-Bucks in 2021.

Google has criticised two competition class actions which piggyback on claims brought by Fornite developer Epic Games as “opportunistic”, but counsel for the class actions told a court the suits on behalf of more than 15 million group members were in the public interest.

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.

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.

Mayfair 101 founder James Mawhinney must pay $1.3 million in security within six weeks or a case brought on behalf of his property management group Mainland against a lender and two McGrathNichol receivers will be thrown out. 

A paparazzo suing Seven for defamation over an interview with Meghan Markle’s father has failed to strike out the broadcaster’s contextual truth defence alleging he is a conman that sought to portray victims of Harvey Weinstein in a bad light.