Sophie Blake
At the ongoing Epic vs. Apple antitrust trial, Apple lawyers suggested that Fortnite-developer Epic was serving as a stalking horse for Microsoft and accused it of withholding evidence.
“A reasonable observer might wonder whether Epic is serving as a stalking horse for Microsoft,” the iPhone maker said during the trial. “Microsoft shielded itself from meaningful discovery in this litigation by not appearing as a party or sending a corporate representative to testify.”
Last year, Epic’s Fortnite was pulled from the App Store after the developer introduced a new payment system which Apple said violated its App Store rules. Epic fired back by suing the iPhone-maker and accusing it of being unfair and anticompetitive.
However, Apple claims that the developer used many witnesses that have connections with Microsoft at the trial including Xbox Executive Lori Wright and Susan Athey, who served as a consulting chief economist for Microsoft for six years. Wright and Athey both testified on behalf of Epic.
“Apple is trying to distract from legitimate concerns from many companies across the industry about its App Store policies and practices, including its refusal to allow game streaming in the Apple App Store,” Microsoft said in a statement yesterday. “Epic speaks and acts for itself, and Microsoft and many other companies have raised concerns through our own voices, including directly with Apple itself.”
Microsoft added that Wright’s testimony was involuntary and she was ‘forthright’ and ‘thoughtful’ in the testimony.
Epic vs. Apple Trial News:
- Apple users are trapped in the App Store, Epic says
- US judge presses Epic CEO on the second day of Apple antitrust trial
- Emails show Apple’s attempts to keep Netflix using in-app purchases
- Apple prevented over $1.5 billion in fraud in 2020, removed 150,000 misleading apps
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