Free riding, monopolies, and other notes as the Epic Games trial wraps up
After 16 weeks and around 200 folders of evidence, arguments in Epic Games' app-store competition lawsuit against Google and Apple are over. Some final thoughts as the long wait for a judgment begins.
In a marathon 16-week trial, Apple and Google made their final arguments this week against allegations by Fortnite maker Epic Games that the Big Tech companies have breached Australian competition law in their app-store operations.
The lawsuits are the first taken against the US tech companies in Australia since Apple and Google have been forced to open up their app stores in Europe and lawyers for Epic Games have seized on the opportunity to say the EU measures are yet to deliver for developers or consumers.
It’s somewhat serendipitous that Epic's court battle has played out while the ACCC continues its calls for tougher competition-law measures for digital platforms, including calls for industry codes of conduct that would prevent “designated digital platforms” from requiring app developers to use their in-app payment systems.
If Epic wins and the Federal Court makes orders that would force Apple and Google to open up their app stores, it would effectively deliver through an alternative route the work the government has committed to do in tasking Treasury to design legislation to see the service-specific codes developed.
