34 US states and the District of Columbia have sided with Epic Games in its antitrust lawsuit against Apple. They appealed the court’s ruling, saying that the iPhone maker should stop its restrictive practices.
The remarks were made on January 27 by Utah, Colorado, Indiana, Texas, and other states, Reuters reported. They accused Apple of monopolizing “app distribution and in-app payment solutions for iPhones, stifle competition,” and amassing supracompetitive profits within the almost trillion-dollar-a-year smartphone industry.
According to the appeals, judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers made a mistake analyzing the App Store’s policies. She allegedly couldn’t recognize some anti-competitive agreements that the company imposes on app developers.
“Paradoxically, firms with enough market power to unilaterally impose contracts would be protected from antitrust scrutiny — precisely the firms whose activities give the most cause for antitrust concern,” the states said.
According to Bloomberg, Epic Games also gained support from Microsoft, a consumer advocacy group, and a cyber-civil liberties organization, as well as 38 law, economics, and business professors.
Apple, meanwhile, is optimistic about the upcoming trials, saying that the court would dismiss Epic’s appeal.
The US isn’t the only country where Apple is facing investigations and lawsuits against its policies. Poland has accused the company of possible violation of antitrust law, while South Korea has been trying to force it to allow alternative payment methods in the country since the adoption of the so-called “anti-Google law.”