Epic Games Blasts Apple's 'Anti-Competitive' Payments Practices in Lawsuit

The Fortnite developer says in-app bitcoin and crypto payments could flourish if not for Apple's payments monopoly.

Aug 13, 2020 at 8:59 p.m. UTC

Updated Sep 14, 2021 at 9:43 a.m. UTC

Epic Games has filed suit against Apple Inc. for allegedly monopolizing the in-app payments market and making "innovations" like bitcoin payments all but impossible.

The developer of hyper-popular video game Fortnite claimed in its suit filed Thursday that Apple is acting anti-competitively by imposing an "oppressive" 30% sales tax on app sales as well as banning third-party payments processors from its platform.
Apple's allegedly monopolistic behavior has hurt payment innovation, Epic claims.
Would-be competing in-app payment processes could accept "bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies" if not for their outright exclusion, Epic Games said.
Epic Games demanded the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California prohibit Apple from acting in an anti-competitive manner and end what it called Apple's stranglehold on in-app payments.
The lawsuit appears to be a legal volley in a campaign Epic Games began against Apple after the tech giant booted Fortnite from the Apple app store on Thursday.
Apple cited Fortnite's Thursday implementation of its own in-app payments system as reason for the boot, according to The Verge.

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