EPIC Sues Apple in the EU Too

Back in July, the Epic Games corporation sued Apple and Google over their app store practices, a story we’ve covered a few times already. Now, however, after the complaint failed to fare well in early stages in US courts, Epic Games has announced that they have also formally filed an antitrust complaint against Apple in the European Union court system.

This development doesn’t really change much in the overall story. Both parties are essentially global internet companies, which means they can sue each other in basically any country or coalition they like. This also means that the conflict is basically a race to see which court system will issue a ruling first, since the companies will likely change their policies worldwide to comply with the strictest rule. The official statements from both companies also don’t add much to the debate, with Epic Games saying that they won’t be seeking any damages from Apple in this EU filing, seeking only to force a modification to app store policies.

“We just want to see prohibition on these platform companies using their control over the hardware to exert control over secondary markets and force them to compete on equal terms with every competitor,”
– Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney

Apple, however, did seem to somewhat escalate the conflict in their statement, saying that Epic Games had “made pawns of customers.” Nevertheless, this new filing still doesn’t change much. Both companies are sticking to the arguments I articulated in All the Crazy Details from the EPIC vs. Apple Fight back in September, and the question likely still won’t be settled until the various suits work their way through the courts over the next few months. Until then, all we can do is wait.