34 US states back Epic, call out Apple for stifling competition
Late last year, the Epic vs Apple lawsuit was ruled mostly in Apple's favor. The judge said that Apple is not a monopoly, though it was ruled that Apple should make it possible for developers to add 3rd party payment options to their apps (via an external link).
Epic wasn't too happy with the ruling and filed an appeal in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Last Thursday, professors and activist groups chimed in with their own filings and legal arguments, siding with Epic.
But the biggest play here is that attorneys general for 34 different U.S. and the District of Colombia also thrown their hat in the ring as they are also appealing against the ruling. Their stance is that Apple's conduct is harming app developers and that it's stifling competition, all while amassing "supracompetitive profits".
The original court ruling was that Apple is not violating antitrust laws with its non-negotiable developer contracts. The appealing states say that the lower court did not adequately balance the pros and cons of Apple's App Store rules and that a key antitrust law was not considered properly.
Apple is expected to reply in court in March. On Thursday, it commented that it is optimistic that Epic's challenge would fail.
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