The feud between Apple and Fortnite was the talk of the town last month. However, if you think it has cooled down or is over, then you thought wrong. The case could now further go in front of the jury and now even Google is breaking its silence over the issue. The whole issue started when Fornite was removed from the App Store and Google Play Store for adding their own in-app payment system, avoiding the 30% commission from Apple and Google.
Recently, the case between Apple and Fortnite had its first hearing in presence of Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers. The decision of removing the game from the App Store still remains as it is, but the antitrust case is what both the company is working on. The judge in the antitrust case was very skeptical about the charges that have been filed by Epic Games. As per the statement from the judge, Epic lied, and, regarding the separate payment apparatus Epic insists on calling a “hotfix,” she also said, “Lots of people use hotfixes. That’s not the issue. The issue is that you were told, and you knew explicitly because of your contractual relations, that you could not have that, and you did. It’s really pretty simple.”
The hearing did makes it very clear that the judge was very skeptical of the claims that Epic games were making and the hearing was a brutal one for the company. Meanwhile, Google is also trying to get involved in it as they have been trying to follow the same policies as Apple does. Google did make it clear that they are not going to back down on the 30% commission on the PlayStore, but will allow third-party app store in Android 12.