Video game maker Epic Games has attacked as “entirely contrived” the defence by Apple in closing submissions in a Federal Court trial of its landmark competition case, pointing to the tech giant’s lack of evidence, including from CEO Tim Cook.
A Melbourne car dealer has largely lost a consumer law case against Honda Australia over its decision to abandon a dealership model, but is set to receive compensation for over 2,600 new vehicles it could have sold if Honda hadn’t ended its five-year contract early.
A class action against ANZ and former subsidiary OnePath has been given the green light to “significantly expand” its case against the big four bank, over three years after the case was first filed.
Slater & Gordon has won the court’s nod to be separately represented at an upcoming settlement approval hearing where it will seek a $12.8 million group costs order for running a shareholder class action against G8 Education.
Dental aligner maker Invisalign has won an appeal of a decision rejecting its case accusing SmileDirectClub of misleading consumers, but the appeals court noted that the prospect of a new trial was “remote” after its competitor went under.
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.