Before it wrapped up earlier this week, the antitrust trial between Epic Games and Apple reached a dramatic conclusion on Friday when Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, took the witness stand. Sitting behind a plexiglass barrier, Cook faced a barrage of skeptical questions from both Epic’s lawyer and the judge presiding over the case. Cook’s tenuous answers to Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, in particular, raised serious doubts about whether Apple’s App Store will emerge from this case intact.
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Epic, the video-game company behind
Fortnite, claims that Apple is violating federal antitrust laws by forcing iPhone apps to be distributed only through the App Store and by requiring app developers to pay an “Apple tax” of up to 30 percent of their sales of apps and in-app products on iOS devices. Last year, Epic balked at these restrictions and let
Jerry LambeMay 26th, 2021, 4:22 pm
Former Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski
Some two years ago, a California lawyer spun a tale of judicial intrigue in a lawsuit claiming that a cabal of federal and state court judges tried to cover up a prominent judicial scandal. The lawyer further claimed that a district court judge who dismissed his lawsuit did so in the hopes of securing a circuit court judicial nomination. Castigating that attorney on Monday, a judge rejected the motion to recuse the jurist, finding the theory of judicial bias “inherently unreasonable and untethered to any evidence that might make them even colorable.”
Tim Cook took the stand for the first time as Apple’s chief executive. The billionaire creator of one of the world’s most popular video games walked a federal judge through a tour of the so-called metaverse. And lawyers in masks debated whether an anthropomorphic banana without pants was appropriate to show in federal court.
Epic Games, the maker of the popular game Fortnite, sued Apple last year seeking to allow apps to avoid the 30 per cent commission that the iPhone maker takes on many app sales. On Monday, the trial concluded with Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the US District Court for the Northern District of California pressing the companies on what should change in Apple’s business, if anything. The decision over the case, as well as the future of the $100 billion market for iPhone apps, now rests in her hands. Judge Gonzalez Rogers has said she hopes to issue a verdict by mid-August.
The 16th day of a hard-fought trial between Epic, the maker of “Fortnite,” and Apple went out with a debate session between the company’s lawyers as they were peppered with tough questions from U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.