Wait, Google Play Store removed Fortnite too?

What is Epic trying to achieve here? Do they expect Apple and Google to not take a cut? How are they supposed run the store if they don't take a cut?

@matrix the question is about in-app purchases, not paying for app-store purchases, per se.

With that in mind, what they want to the court to decide is not that "apple cannot take a cut", but instead "apple can take a cut if you use them as the payment processor, but they also cannot monopolise in-app purchase processing".

In-app purchasing being handled by apple is a requirement for being on the app store, so they are intertwined, but it's not inherently the issue.

Epic say this problem goes away if either 1) they can use their own, cheaper payment processor in-app with the app store, or 2) they are allow to distribute outwith the app store. Both of these break the monopoly.

@matrix so to be dead clear, what they want out of it is to not have to give up 30% of their profit on subscriptions made in-app, which is currently a rule to be listed in the app store, even if the app itself is free.

@kline
That's obvious they don't want to share profits.
I don't want to defend Apple or Google but why should they host and distribute an app for free? They aren't a charity. If Epic used a third party payment processor only, Apple and Google would be distributing this extremely popular app at a loss.

@matrix this isn't about hosting, distributing, or purchasing an app, it's about in-app purchases.

They already host and distribute apps for free.

An example is netflix. The netflix app, like fortnite, is hosted and distributed for free.

For netflix, once you download the app, you must then log in. If you don't have an account, you must create one on a PC. If you were to register an account for netflix on the iphone, Apple would charge a 30% processing fee.

Epic argue that this fee is essentially extortionate (compared to something like 3% by other payment processors) and this extortionate fee is enabled by apples monopoly on the payment market.

@matrix as an aside, Google does allow you to use a 3rd party processor.

Additionally, Apple's choice to distribute apps for free is their choice - they could say that all apps must be sold at 99c minimum, which is reasonable.

They can't charge unreasonable prices leveraging a monopoly to do so, however, and this is what Epic are going after.

@matrix no one is really saying that apple isn't allowed to recoup their costs (or even make a profit) on the app store, what is being argued is that you can't lock out competing payment processors and then charge 1000% the rate.

@kline
Google does say “Developers offering products within a game downloaded on Google Play or providing access to game content must use Google Play In-app Billing as the method of payment.”, but that's irrelevant because they aren't required to use Google Play to be on Android, however they are suing Google too.

Definitely. Even if you don't have any microtransactions in your free game, Apple still requires you to go through them which means they are abusing their position.