After nearly all defeats in lower and appeals courts, Epic has taken its last chance of winning its antitrust case to the Supreme Court. Epic lost an antitrust case against Apple and won nothing on appeal, criticizing a ruling it won. Epic had previously appealed the case to the Supreme Court, but failed to obtain any changes.
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Nonetheless, Epic is preparing to challenge Apple again and take the case to the Supreme Court for review. A court filing shows that Epic has filed a complaint asking the Supreme Court to review the antitrust case and its ruling.
Epic accuses Apple of antitrust conduct by using its monopoly control of the App Store to monopolize the iPhone app market and extract billions of dollars in revenue. Apple's alleged control prevents anyone, like Epic, from opening its own app store on the iPhone and competing with Apple.
Apple argued that it was not engaging in antitrust conduct and that companies were welcome to compete through the Safari website and other channels. Apple believes that the closed nature of the App Store is for user privacy and security.
Epic launched an attack on Apple with its game "Fortnite" that bypassed Apple's AppStore payment system. Epic filed the lawsuit after Apple kicked the offending app from the App Store.
Except for Apple's "restricting traffic diversion" behavior that was ruled illegal by the court, Epic lost the lawsuit in all other aspects. Apple has appealed the ruling and will suspend enforcement of the ruling until the appeal is completed.
It's unclear whether Epic's appeal to the Supreme Court will succeed. Changes in lower court rulings could have significant ramifications for Apple, the iPhone and the app economy as a whole.