Epic sued Apple in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California alleging that Apple’s iOS walled garden, and, specifically, that its refusal to allow app makers to use a payment system other than the Apple store, the privilege of which cost app makers 30 percent of the fee collected, violated the Sherman Act and the California Unfair Competition Law (“UCL”).

On September 10, 2021, in a 185-page opinion, Judge Yvonne Gonzales Rogers held that Apple was not a monopoly and, therefore, that all of the Sherman Act causes of action failed. Judge Rogers did, however, hold that the restrictions on apps using alternative payment systems were antisteering provisions that violated the UCL. Epic has vowed to appeal. Apple has refused to let Fortnite, the Epic app that was the subject of the case, back into its eco-system.

Originally published in the Intellectual Property & Technology Law Journal, February 2022.