By Mike Scarcella
(Reuters) – iPhone maker Apple on Friday denied violating a court order governing its App Store and urged a federal judge in California to reject a request by “Fortnite” developer Epic Games to find it guilty of contempt.
Apple made the arguments in a filing before U.S. District Judge Yvonne González Rogers (NYSE in Oakland, who presided over Epic's 2020 lawsuit accusing Apple of violating antitrust law with its strict controls over how consumers download apps and pay the transactions within them.
Apple's filing criticized what it called an attempt by Epic to make “Apple tools and technologies available to developers for free.”
Epic, he said, wanted the court to “micromanage Apple's business operations in a way that increased Epic's profitability.”
Epic declined to comment. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the dispute, part of a long-running fight between the two companies.
Epic largely lost its case against Apple, but Rogers in 2021 ordered Apple to give developers greater freedom to guide app users toward alternative payment methods for digital products.
In January, the US Supreme Court refused to hear Apple's appeal of the court order.
Epic said in a court filing last month that Apple, based in Cupertino, California, was in “flagrant violation” of the court order. He pointed to Apple's imposition of a 27% fee on developers for some purchases, which the video game maker said makes links for alternative payment options “commercially unusable.”
Epic also alleged that Apple banned some apps from informing users about other ways to pay for goods.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:), Microsoft (NASDAQ:), Elon Musk's x and Match Group (NASDAQ:) last month echoed Epic's arguments and told Rogers that Apple was in “clear violation” of the court order.
In a similar case Epic filed against Alphabet's (NASDAQ:) Google, a San Francisco judge is expected to issue a separate injunction affecting the Google Play Store this year.
The case is Epic Games Inc v. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:), US District Court, Northern District of California, No. 20-05640.
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