Apple’s and Google’s spats with app developers over their cut of revenues exploded into a high-stakes clash Thursday when the tech giants kicked the popular game Fortnite out of their app stores and the game’s maker hit back with lawsuits.
The fight began Thursday morning with a clear provocation. Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, started encouraging Fortnite’s mobile-app users to pay it directly, rather than through Apple or Google. The companies require that they handle all such app payments so they can collect a 30% commission, a policy that has been at the center of antitrust complaints against the companies.
Hours later, Apple responded, removing the Fortnite app from its App Store.
Within an hour, Epic sued Apple in federal court, accusing the company of violating antitrust laws by forcing developers to use its payment systems.
“Apple’s removal of Fortnite is yet another example of Apple flexing its enormous power in order to impose unreasonable restraints and unlawfully maintain its 100% monopoly over the” market for in-app payments on iPhones, Epic said in its 62-page lawsuit.
Then, Epic rolled out a sophisticated public-relations campaign that depicted Apple, one of industry’s most image-conscious companies, as the stodgy old guard trying to stifle the upstart.
