As part of Epic s argument that Apple s App Store is anti-competitive, the trial has revealed a lot of internal Apple deliberations on negotiations court exhibits including email threads fill 60 binders worth of documents with some of its most important partners.
The documents paint a portrait of a company very aware of its highest-grossing and most important apps, that regularly engages in negotiations with companies including Netflix, Microsoft, Facebook and even Epic Games itself, whose Fortnite game was one of the top apps on Apple s App Store.
While the emails don t show the App Store team compromising on Apple s rules about what s allowed on the store, they did offer other concessions, including front-page placement on the App Store, coordination and publicity through Apple product launches, access to exclusive programming features, and attempts to loop in senior executives to find compromises.
In opening arguments in its case against Apple, Epic Games argues that the Cupertino tech giant has unnecessarily monopolized app distribution and in-app payments on the iOS App Store.
The Apple v. Epic Games trial kicked off on Monday, May 3 with opening arguments from both sides. The case originated from a lawsuit Epic Games levied against Apple for removing Fortnite from the App Store. Apple pulled the battle royale game after Epic implemented a direct payment system in violation of its guidelines.
Epic s opening arguments were that Apple has a monopoly on iOS app distribution and payments via the App Store. It added that its lawsuit is meant to change the ecosystem for all developers, since it says the market will not self-correct.
Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge
Next week, Epic Games and Apple will appear in court for a long-anticipated legal battle. Epic argues that Apple unfairly kicked its hit game
Fortnite off the App Store last year, exercising an illegal monopoly over the ubiquitous iOS platform. Apple claims Epic is trying to break the iOS platform’s vaunted safety and security for its own gain. Both parties have laid out how they expect to win their respective cases, and this week, they’ve provided near-final lists of the people they expect to call for testimony.
Apple and Epic both filed revised tentative witness lists on April 26th. The lists don’t guarantee every witness will be called, and crucially, they don’t tell us