The legal dispute between Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, and tech Giant Apple is pulling more tech companies into the battle.
Epic’s litigation accusing Apple of holding an unfair monopoly power has been growing more contentious since it began six months ago when Epic added a new payment system to its app Fortnite’s iOS version. The new payment system bypassed Apple’s 30 percent fee, which it collects for any in-app purchases made on iPhone apps.
In retaliation, Apple removed the Fortnite app from the App Store. Epic’s response to its removal from the App Store was two-fold. First, the company debuted a Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite promo, based on Apple’s famous 1984 Macintosh ad. Then the company filed a lawsuit against Apple over Fortnite’s removal, alleging Apple is engaging in monopolistic behaviors in how they distribute apps to devices and process payments for digital content.
As part of the ongoing legal battle, Epic wants to take testimony from a senior executive at Match.com, an online dating service that owns popular dating app Tinder. Epic wants additional testimony from a former Apple executive that the iPhone maker has suggested it cannot locate. Epic is also set to take testimony from Apple CEO Tim Cook.
For its part, Apple has subpoenaed Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Amazon, and Samsung.
The latest development in the lawsuit involves Valve, the company behind popular game distribution platform Steam. In a virtual discovery hearing on Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas S. Hixson upheld Apple’s subpoena for Valve’s aggregate historical sales, price, and other information on 436 games hosted on the store.
“It’s my understanding, for lack of a better word, Apple has salted the earth with subpoenas, so don’t worry, it’s not just you,” Judge Hixson told Valve’s lawyers during the virtual hearing.
Apple is requesting the documents to show the extent of the market that the Epic Store is competing in and refute the claim that the company is maintaining a monopoly. Apple originally sought data from more than 30,000 games before narrowing it to the 436 games that the judge allowed the tech giant to subpoena.
“Valve’s digital distribution service, Steam, is the dominant digital game distributor on the PC platform and is a direct competitor to the Epic Game Store,” argued lawyers for Apple.
In response to the subpoena, lawyers for Valve sought to have the judge reject the order because of the burden it would place on the company and the private nature of the information. According to Valve, the company is run by a small team, and collecting all the data Apple is requesting would require it to “dedicate multiple employees working full time.” Valve said it would not be able to guarantee the request could be completed on time.
“Valve does not disclose its sales and revenue information and projections, and Valve derives a significant value and edge from the confidentiality of such information, including by keeping it out of the hands of companies like Epic who also sell PC games,” Valve’s lawyer said in a filing.
