news

new developments in the legal battle between apple and epic, with the former citing new precedents to demand the ban be lifted

2024-10-01

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

it house reported on october 1 that the legal dispute between apple and epic games has made new progress. due to new legal precedent and epic's lack of evidence, apple asked the court to revoke its previous unfavorable injunction against the company.

the dispute between apple and epic stems from apple’s anti-steering provisions for developers(it home note: measures to prevent developers from promoting external platforms and websites on the app store) although the court has ordered apple to remove this restriction, epic is not satisfied with apple's implementation. subsequently, apple was asked to provide 1.3 million documents related to app store rules. however, apple unexpectedly filed a new document on monday.

in the filing, apple asked the court to overturn the previously issued injunction, citing two new cases that have emerged since the injunction: beverage v. apple and murthy v. missouri. apple believes thatthese two jurisprudence indicate that the previous injunction no longer has effect.

beverage v. apple is a state case;its ruling found that apple’s anti-bootstrap clause was not unfair. the ruling means the federal government cannot contest it, making the nationwide ban no longer enforceable.

murthy v. missouri involves plaintiffs alleging that the biden administration pressured social media companies to curb misinformation during the coronavirus pandemic. although it has little relevance to this case, the court ruled in apple's favor. the court required the plaintiffs to provide evidence that the defendants’ actions created a substantial future risk to them.

apple believes that the verdict in the murthy case is of great significance to this case. apple pointed out,epic cannot prove that its anti-bootstrap provisions had a direct impact on epic's business, and there is no evidence that users will choose epic over other app stores because of the lack of anti-bootstrap clauses.

combining these two cases, apple believes that the court has reason to revoke or limit the scope of the injunction. this means that apple may reintroduce anti-bootstrap clauses in the app store guidelines, except when epic games is involved.

while apple appears to have made a legitimate case for changing or revoking the ban, the final decision rests with the courts.