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.
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.
A judge has ordered lawsuits by Fortnite owner Epic Games against Apple and Google to be heard together with class actions against the tech giants on behalf of app developers and customers who accuse them of distorting competition in the app marketplace.
Telstra and TPG will not challenge a decision by the Australian Competition Tribunal to uphold the ACCC’s rejection of their proposed regional network sharing agreement.
A judge has ordered Meta to pay a $20 million penalty for misleading consumers by representing that its discontinued Onavo Protect mobile app would keep users’ personal activity data private, when in fact it was being collected for commercial use.
Telstra and TPG have lost their challenge to the ACCC’s decision refusing authorisation for a $1.8 billion regional network sharing agreement, with the Australian Competition Tribunal finding the deal would increase Telstra’s dominance in the mobile phone market.