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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.

By Danny Nelson
AccessTimeIconAug 13, 2020 at 8:59 p.m. UTC
Updated Sep 14, 2021 at 9:43 a.m. UTC
(Shutterstock)

(Shutterstock)

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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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