The fight between Apple and Epic Games took another turn this week after the UK government officially opened an investigation into the tech giant. The announcement comes in the wake of what the UK said is several developers complaining about Apple.
The legal battle between the two companies has been going on since last year, and is being fought on multiple fronts and in multiple countries. Sometimes, even when Apple looks like it scored a victory, another development seems to favor Epic Games. At the heart of that ongoing fight is how Apple allows developers to offer their applications and games in the iOS or Mac app store.
While the case ended in a UK courtroom, the Competition and Markets Authority isn’t quite done with everything. Its investigation is responding to complaints that the way Apple controls its app store and how much money it demands from developers to list the work. The agency believes it’s possible Apple is engaging in “anti-competitive behavior.”
The CMA said in a release on its official website that its investigation will consider whether Apple has a dominant position in connection with the distribution of apps on Apple devices in the UK. More to the point, the investigation will try to determine if the stranglehold on the app store is hurting choices the consumers have. The agency is going to look at whether or not customers have to pay higher prices or simply not get the apps they want, because of the rules developers have to follow.
While the CMA doesn’t specifically single out Epic Games as the reason for the investigation, the company has been leading the fight against Apple for quite a while. It was even recently revealed that Epic had been planning its revolt for even longer than the companies have been doing battle. Officially, the UK government is citing multiple complaints from multiple companies against Apple. It is true that while Epic has been the most vocal of late, other firms have made it clear they aren’t happy with having to turn over 30 percent of their revenue to the tech giant in order to list their apps on its store.
The CMA also made it clear that this isn’t a situation where the decision has already been made and this is just about tying up loose ends. Chief Executive Andrea Coscelli said the investigation has just begun, though, in a wider investigation of Apple, the UK government has already found some “worrying trends.”
Source: UK Government
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