A U.K. judge has barred aspiring freeloader Epic Games from widening its fight with Apple over App Store access to its Fortnite video game.
Jonathan Browning for Bloomberg News:
Epic had submitted a complaint to the U.K.’s antitrust tribunal at the end of last year, saying Apple’s decision to remove the game from the iPhone maker’s App Store was unlawful. The judge ruled Monday that while the U.S. was a better forum for the Apple dispute, a similar U.K. suit against Alphabet Inc.’s Google could move forward.
Epic has sought to pursue the two tech giants in court and with regulators around the world in an effort to reinstate the battle royale video game. It was dropped from app stores after trying to circumvent payment systems with its own in-app purchases.
Epic said it will reconsider pursuing Apple in the U.K. after the ruling.
MacDailyNews Take: Chalk up another loss for the aspiring freeloader Epic Games.
The bottom line: Epic Games wants to enjoy all of the benefits of Apple’s App Store, including access to well over one billion of the world’s most affluent users for free. That is illogical, unfair, and, basically, theft.