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Apple vs Epic Games Court Proceedings: Days 15, 16 (End)

May 26, 2021 (edited)

On the fifteenth day, the final day of the originally scheduled three-week court trial, Apple director and chief executive Tim Cook took the stage.

Judge YGR started by pointing out that whether the App Store is a monopoly market will be up to him to decide whether to accept Epic Games' argument. However, the lack of market competitiveness of the 30% commission rate is obviously a problem.

Is Apple making it difficult for iOS users to move to the Android platform? Apple Cook said "no", and even allowed iCloud photos to be moved to Google Photos with one click this is complete). Another data DX-3084A shows that the user loyalty of iOS and Android in recent quarters is as high as 74%-88% (Editor's note: In the final day debate, it is also interpreted as only 10-20% of users will Changing platforms, the liquidity rate is extremely low, so developers usually have to support both platforms at the same time, which is a duopoly.)

Epic Games attorney Gary Bornstein asks if Apple competes with Google in the operating system market? Apple Cook said they are competing with Android phone makers such as Samsung and LG. However, Epic Games provided video evidence, and in the 2019 Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting interview, Apple Cook made it clear that they "competed with Google and Microsoft in the operating system market, and Samsung, Huawei, LG, etc. in the hardware competition." ( Editor's Note: This means that Apple and Google are indeed a duopoly in the mobile operating system market, lest Apple shift the market competitors to many mobile phone manufacturers.)

Epic Games attorney Gary Bornstein went on to ask that Google was paying Apple as much as $10 billion a year to get its default search engine on iOS (another Google search engine monopoly case), but Apple Cook said he couldn't remember exactly. Amount figures.

Apple Cook confirmed that he personally agreed with the decision to terminate the Epic Games developer account, which he considers malicious. But Apple seems to have made a proposal to bring Epic Games back to the App Store, and said that if Epic Games complied with the relevant regulations, it would still be a good result for users.

In a paragraph where Judge YGR continuously asked key questions, he pointed out that Apple Cook claims to be for the sake of users, but a very high proportion of IAP revenue comes from the game industry, so providing gamers with cheaper purchase options or other payment channels, some Why not? And this is equivalent to taking the disproportionately high revenue of the game industry to subsidize other industries. Apple Cook said that IAP is the most efficient way to collect commissions they have thought of. If players are provided with other payment options, it is equivalent to giving up IAP; Judge YGR said that Apple can take other ways to collect commissions.

Judge YGR also pointed out that IAP is not competitive in the market. For example, the "App Store Small Business Plan" is not the result of market competition. For example, if Steam reduces the commission rate, the App Store will not feel the market pressure and reduce the commission rate. . Although Apple Cook believes that attracting developers is still a fairly competitive market, the commission rate will also be a factor.

(Editor’s note: Apple does not regard IAP as a payment channel, but as a way of charging commissions, which is equivalent to a department store charging a commission proportional to its revenue for its counters; however, IAP’s anti-guidance clause, plus action operations The duopoly of the system allows its commission ratio to ignore the market competition of payment channels, so Apple also knows that if other payment options are opened up, the IAP commission ratio will be uncompetitive at all, which will make Apple need to find other payment options. Commissions; in final day arguments, Judge YGR pointed out that other platforms also use anti-bootstrap clauses, and Epic Games lawyer Bornstein argued that other platforms do not have as much market power as Apple.)

Judge YGR put forward a developer opinion statistic, saying that as many as 39% of developers are "very dissatisfied" or "dissatisfied" with Apple's App Store channel (36% are "very satisfied" or "satisfied", and 19% are neutral opinion), but Apple does not seem to feel the pressure of market competition from developers to improve these problems. Apple Cook pointed out that they need to create a safe and reliable experience for users. The App Store rejects 40,000 apps every week, so developers and users sometimes do not necessarily have common interests.

In the end, Judge YGR pointed out that there will be a back-and-forth argument on the final day next Monday, and said that he still has as many as 4,500 pages of testimony documents to review, and will give the verdict as soon as possible, and joked that it will be completed by 8/13, That's the anniversary of the "Fortnite" challenge lawsuit!

On the sixteenth, the final day of back-and-forth arguments, three weeks of court trials ended in switching positions, repeating these issues, and discussing various options for possible compensation after the verdict.

Refs:

Day 15